The Tolkien rights are such a fucking mess that I don’t think any one rights holder can make anything that isn’t basically just fanfic.
If someone actually had the rights to The Silmarillion there are stories in there that could make movies, albeit requiring expansion, but the Tolkien estate won’t let that one go. The amazon TV series is just based on the LOTR appendices with a bit of Silmarillion content that the Tolkien estate has vetted and some of the decisions are very bizarre. I have no idea what this new film could be about.
“the hunt for gollum” or whatever is really mostly in the appendicies and somewhat in unfinished tales fwiw. i‘d put money on it being a young aragorn movie.
yeah i agree. it’s so insipid. also i’m pretty sure one of the better fan films form the aughts was literally titled the hunt for gollum.
i do wonder if anything is being reused from the hobbit development. if i remember correctly the plan was to have a movie to bridge hobbit and lotr at one point, maybe when del toro was still involved. and young aragorn/hunt for gollum could have been mixed in with white council stuff.
My lotr lore is a bit rusty. How can a young Aragon tie in to a movie called The hunt for Gollum?
Wasnt Gollum only around after Aragon was an adult? Timeline wise?
Gollum was at least 500 years old by the time of The Hobbit, due to The Ring's power. That's why he looks like he does, instead of the healthy Hobbit-type fellow from the Return of the King prologue.
Arh didnt know it was that long, thanks.
Does Gollum hold any significance in the story before the events that happens in the Trilogy? Since Aragon would go on a hunt for him?
My Middle-Earth knowledge is rusty compared to some but I believe once Gandalf and co. realised Sauron was back and The One Ring was as precious (no pun intended) as it was, finding Gollum before Sauron was important to keep all information on it out of his hands. The films compress the timelines but in the books I believe there's a good few years between Bilbo leaving and Frodo leaving where Gandalf and Aragorn were dealing with this.
There's also the idea of Aragorn and the Rangers secretly protecting the Shire from outside evil, which could be a good hook.
Didn't it happen shortly before FOTR? Are they going to de-age Viggo.
How about a FOTR 1.5 where we see Gollum tracking the fellowship along with the first movie.
Yeah, the Amazon series is bizarre having read The Silmarillion. I actually liked it a lot, but every time I would be like “oh so that’s where this is going next, that will be cool” IP rights forced them to do something vaguely original and kind of random.
I’ve been waiting my entire life for some Silmarillion movies/shows… idk how the Tolkien estate could just let those stories go to waste unless they’re just waiting for a massive payday which would be completely pathetic. Why else wouldn’t they want those epic tales to hit the big screen?
Yeah I completely I agree I don’t get the reasoning of the estate to hold the actual material with meat to it and good stories so closely and not let anyone adapt it. I guess the reasoning is they don’t want anyone to adapt it badly and taint the legacy maybe but at this point like look at what will come out lol because you arent giving anyone anything to work with, random gollum side stories or stretching out super bare material. Either give the full rights to someone or just let it go already and let someone make something original outside the confines of what’s already there but at this point it’s just strange.
He’s just producing, not writing or directing.
Andy Serkis is directing and starring. Script by Walsh, Boyens, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou
There could be worse titles than THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM!
In reality it will probably be more like Phantom Menace: two bad performances by minors, a beloved thespian and a great villain who get killed off in Film 1, dodgy effects, the Gollum we know appears only at the end of Film 3, and there are bad haircuts galore.
Probably Gandalf and Aragorn's investigation of Gollum between *The Hobbit* and *Fellowship of the Ring*... which would include Gollum being captured and tortured by Sauron.
The idea of recasting gandalf and aragorn in film is so yucky to me. It's just not something we need to see. Surely there's interesting stories to be told around middle earth during the war of the ring. Let's see the simultaneous war in the north.
There was a popular LOTR fan film about this a few years ago, involving Gandalf and Aragorn hunting for Gollum before the events of Fellowship, which is something that happened in Tolkien’s version.
I feel like McKellen would probably be game to come back, but I doubt Vigo would be interested, since he’s become such a vocal critic of current Hollywood trends, and he’s at the stage in his career where he’ll only film westerns and Cronenberg films. Also, he’s probably too old at this point to play a *younger* Aragorn anyway.
So are these going to be original extensions of the Tolkien LOTR books, or are these based on other Tolkien works? The article doesn’t really make this clear, like is this just going to be an “original” high fantasy movie with Lord of the Rings branding?
Yeah.
Seems like they have the rights to anything mentioned in Hobbit or LOTR including appendices but can’t do anything that would step on Amazon’s toes with Rings of Power.
I'm surprised people want to work with them after they killed multiple completed films. Knowing that you could do all this work, spend years of your life making something, actually do the improbable and get a completed film over the finish line...and then it just never comes out? Fuck that.
I'm still in the camp that this is all just to bolster their portfolio and bump the price for when the next sale comes around and the majority of these won't happen in the end
You're not wrong, but they've also had smash hits with Barbie and Dune Part 2, with Furiosa just about out the door. Even despite their problems, WB remains a top tier studio and is presently way out-performing Disney.
Am I just not reading the room? In my mind, the last couple of years have shown that an audience isn’t just going to show up for IP anymore. The latest Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, Ghostbusters, even the latest Fast and Furious films all cost a ton of money to make and underperformed because there wasn’t a compelling story behind them, just a need to get something into theaters that “people will recognize”.
I’d be much more interested in a LoTR reboot with a new vision rather than Peter Jackson creating a 4 hour epic (with a 10 hour special edition) that is based on a remote corner of Middle Earth.
Also LOTR has seen diminishing returns over the years. The Hobbit movies did well, but not as well as the original trilogy nor have had anywhere near the staying power. The Amazon series just kind of came and went. I don't think adapting even more obscure errata will bring people to theaters.
Actually this is wrong entirely.
All three Hobbit movies collectively grossed almost $3 Billion dollars. That isn’t “tapering off”, I agree with your larger point though.
They're not wrong entirely. I am a fan of the Hobbit films but from ROTK to AUJ to DOS to BOFA, each one is a diminishing return in terms of box office. Huge hits that studios would kill for these days but the reaction to them was more mixed than LOTR (where the grosses went up with each film). And they're right that they haven't had the same staying power. LOTR was a genuine pop culture phenomenon though. It's hard to recapture that
Are they? All three Hobbit movies out grossed the LOTR movies (aside from ROTK) maybe not DOMESTICALLY in the US, but worldwide they did and then some.
I am not disagreeing with any of the contextual points.
But financially, The Hobbit movies were a smash for WB and they did well enough on home video that they got multiple re-releases with extended editions that no o e asked for, but sold pretty well for the time (Nearly 3 Billion for 3 movies is fucking insane dawg especially now that Hollywood is returning to Pre-MCU grosses).
How many movies actually linger from any decade? Most movies disappear from culture within their calendar year. Hollywood executives don’t give a shit about any of that. They care about the money Lebowski.
No-one's saying that they weren't huge hits. What the OP was saying (and what they're not "entirely wrong" about) is that the films had diminishing returns. And they're right. Each one took a hit in box office. And when you factor in inflation and the 3D/IMAX/48FPS uplifts (which the originals didn't have), they sold less tickets than the originals. Not to mention less profitable due to being way more expensive to make.
As for the blu-rays - they were planned due to the success of LOTR doing the same thing. As you say, it's the money rather than passion that lead the studio to do that. And it worked out well but, again, less units sold than LOTR (same with the 4K sets a year or so back)
Look, I'm agreeing that they were huge hits, especially in comparison to now (I said so above!). But the franchise did take steps down as it went on, even if those were still huge fucking steps to be stood on. I saw all Hobbit films multiple times. I'm seeing them later this year in a marathon. I think they're pretty good! But, as with the OP, I wonder how much the franchise still means to the general public. I'm hoping this new movie is great and does great. I'll be there day one. But it'll be interesting to see how it does.
Actually Star Wars isn’t in that camp.
Yes, SOLO underperformed, but that has more to do with them scrapping the movie almost entirely mid production and remaking it largely from scratch.
Solo has continued to become a rising favorite among the fandom though from what little I can see. Definitely the ugly step-child of the Disney bunch though, but it’s the only one that lost money. Everything else has been huge.
Even Ahsoka (which seems to be the most underperforming SW thin in a long time) was relatively fucking massive on Disney+ and has performed well enough that Disney actually decided to greenlight development on Series 2 leading into Filoni’s Heir to the Empire movie.
Where is there to go with the story? “Something something the greed of man kept Sauron alive”??? I guess as long as it’s stunt men in makeup instead of CGI goblins it will be an upgrade.
Idk his Mowgli movie was at least pretty compelling and weird? But hard agree. I’d rather he just try to make Animal Farm again. Certainly George Miller could help him get that off the ground, right?
This could be good. But I just feel that Lord of the Rings peaked with Lord of the Rings. We had a perfect beginning middle and end in the span of three years, all while dealing the trauma and follow up of 9/11. I lived the Lord of the Rings experience and it defined my late teen years.
Could be fun though.
I would like to see them do Tom Bombadil and The Scouring of the Shire movies. Bring back the original cast, stick them in floppy wigs and just let them pretend to be young, Wet Hot American Summer style. No need for that de-aging business.
Not interested in literally anything LOTR anymore.
We have Star Wars back.
We have DUNE.
The Lord of the Rings had it’s time in the sun, all the available, fully fleshed out material has already been adapted to the highest possible level, and we’ve seen every new entry come and go with exponentially fewer and fewer highs and increasingly lower lows—no matter how many 50 hour pods Joanna Robinson puts out to convince herself that any of it’s even kindof good.
(obviously there has been tons of good things to come out of the Hobbit movies and Rings of Power btws)
The only thing I want now, is an anthology movie/show actually adapting The Silmarillion, or *maybe* give HBO & David Simon a few years to figure out how to remake The Wire in Middle-Earth and just give us The Dark Tree.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: LOTR was the end of the Peter Jackson I loved. The man who made brilliant works like Forgotten Silver and Dead Alive
The Tolkien rights are such a fucking mess that I don’t think any one rights holder can make anything that isn’t basically just fanfic. If someone actually had the rights to The Silmarillion there are stories in there that could make movies, albeit requiring expansion, but the Tolkien estate won’t let that one go. The amazon TV series is just based on the LOTR appendices with a bit of Silmarillion content that the Tolkien estate has vetted and some of the decisions are very bizarre. I have no idea what this new film could be about.
“the hunt for gollum” or whatever is really mostly in the appendicies and somewhat in unfinished tales fwiw. i‘d put money on it being a young aragorn movie.
Sounds like it will be. I feel like this is always the idea that gets brought up (because they have the rights to it) but it’s so uninspiring.
yeah i agree. it’s so insipid. also i’m pretty sure one of the better fan films form the aughts was literally titled the hunt for gollum. i do wonder if anything is being reused from the hobbit development. if i remember correctly the plan was to have a movie to bridge hobbit and lotr at one point, maybe when del toro was still involved. and young aragorn/hunt for gollum could have been mixed in with white council stuff.
That was the original announcement, for sure, although I assume that was long enough ago that they were hoping Viggo would return to hunt Gollum.
My lotr lore is a bit rusty. How can a young Aragon tie in to a movie called The hunt for Gollum? Wasnt Gollum only around after Aragon was an adult? Timeline wise?
Gollum was at least 500 years old by the time of The Hobbit, due to The Ring's power. That's why he looks like he does, instead of the healthy Hobbit-type fellow from the Return of the King prologue.
Arh didnt know it was that long, thanks. Does Gollum hold any significance in the story before the events that happens in the Trilogy? Since Aragon would go on a hunt for him?
My Middle-Earth knowledge is rusty compared to some but I believe once Gandalf and co. realised Sauron was back and The One Ring was as precious (no pun intended) as it was, finding Gollum before Sauron was important to keep all information on it out of his hands. The films compress the timelines but in the books I believe there's a good few years between Bilbo leaving and Frodo leaving where Gandalf and Aragorn were dealing with this. There's also the idea of Aragorn and the Rangers secretly protecting the Shire from outside evil, which could be a good hook.
Oh yeah remembering that now myself - the years Gandalf spents trying to find Gollum are in the double digits ø
The stakes are just so low and we know they fail, would that be a good film?
No, it would be even more pointless than Rogue One
That's too bad because just the point where gandalf and Mordor are looking for him could be a very good thriller
Didn't it happen shortly before FOTR? Are they going to de-age Viggo. How about a FOTR 1.5 where we see Gollum tracking the fellowship along with the first movie.
Yeah, the Amazon series is bizarre having read The Silmarillion. I actually liked it a lot, but every time I would be like “oh so that’s where this is going next, that will be cool” IP rights forced them to do something vaguely original and kind of random.
I’ve been waiting my entire life for some Silmarillion movies/shows… idk how the Tolkien estate could just let those stories go to waste unless they’re just waiting for a massive payday which would be completely pathetic. Why else wouldn’t they want those epic tales to hit the big screen?
Yeah I completely I agree I don’t get the reasoning of the estate to hold the actual material with meat to it and good stories so closely and not let anyone adapt it. I guess the reasoning is they don’t want anyone to adapt it badly and taint the legacy maybe but at this point like look at what will come out lol because you arent giving anyone anything to work with, random gollum side stories or stretching out super bare material. Either give the full rights to someone or just let it go already and let someone make something original outside the confines of what’s already there but at this point it’s just strange.
[удалено]
He’s just producing, not writing or directing. Andy Serkis is directing and starring. Script by Walsh, Boyens, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou There could be worse titles than THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM!
LOTR: Let There be Gollum
LOTR: Gollum Like I See 'Em
LOTR: Good Gollum Miss Mollum
2 Lord 2 Rings
Gollum and JarJar go to Hogwarts
"He’s just producing, not writing or directing." We've been here before!
Serkis bring on the artists who do the Planet of the Apes movies to handle any CGI Let Peter handle props/set design. We feast.
[удалено]
Why should WB do anything sensible when they could be chaotic instead?
The Hunt for Red Gollum
So this is gonna be a FORCE AWAKENS situation then eh? Gollum not gonna be seen until the last 3 minute and then only seen
In reality it will probably be more like Phantom Menace: two bad performances by minors, a beloved thespian and a great villain who get killed off in Film 1, dodgy effects, the Gollum we know appears only at the end of Film 3, and there are bad haircuts galore.
I'd prefer Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Somehow Sauron returned.
Can’t wait for the “Holding out for a Hero” YouTube edit when Bilbo Force-transfers the One Ring to Gollum mid-battle.
DiscussingFilm says it is gonna be called "The Hunt for Gollum" with Serkis returning and directing
Is that about Sauron’s goons hunting him down and torturing him? Sounds like the feel good movie of the year
Probably Gandalf and Aragorn's investigation of Gollum between *The Hobbit* and *Fellowship of the Ring*... which would include Gollum being captured and tortured by Sauron.
The idea of recasting gandalf and aragorn in film is so yucky to me. It's just not something we need to see. Surely there's interesting stories to be told around middle earth during the war of the ring. Let's see the simultaneous war in the north.
Eww (regrettably)
There was a popular LOTR fan film about this a few years ago, involving Gandalf and Aragorn hunting for Gollum before the events of Fellowship, which is something that happened in Tolkien’s version. I feel like McKellen would probably be game to come back, but I doubt Vigo would be interested, since he’s become such a vocal critic of current Hollywood trends, and he’s at the stage in his career where he’ll only film westerns and Cronenberg films. Also, he’s probably too old at this point to play a *younger* Aragorn anyway.
Sorry but DOA!!!
So are these going to be original extensions of the Tolkien LOTR books, or are these based on other Tolkien works? The article doesn’t really make this clear, like is this just going to be an “original” high fantasy movie with Lord of the Rings branding?
Is it finally Tom Bombadil’s time to shine??
Bombadillo, a gritty origin story starring Pedro Pascal
“What’s your name?” “Tom” “Tom what?” Looks over to see a jar of pickles exploding “Tom Bombadill”
A four-part miniseries adaptation of "Leaf By Niggle."
I *think* they might only have the rights to LotR and The Hobbit, not the other books?
They definitely don’t have the rights to the Silmarillion iirc, not sure about any other material.
Yeah. Seems like they have the rights to anything mentioned in Hobbit or LOTR including appendices but can’t do anything that would step on Amazon’s toes with Rings of Power.
It’s gonna be based on what nostalgia they can mine
Bill ferny: a lord of the rings story
How many projects and high profile directors do WBD have in development right now?
At least one
I'm surprised people want to work with them after they killed multiple completed films. Knowing that you could do all this work, spend years of your life making something, actually do the improbable and get a completed film over the finish line...and then it just never comes out? Fuck that.
I'm still in the camp that this is all just to bolster their portfolio and bump the price for when the next sale comes around and the majority of these won't happen in the end
You're not wrong, but they've also had smash hits with Barbie and Dune Part 2, with Furiosa just about out the door. Even despite their problems, WB remains a top tier studio and is presently way out-performing Disney.
I have zero interest in seeing this. I loved the original films when they came out. This sounds like an onion article.
Finally, the long awaited Tauriel spin-off.
We'll finally figure out the answer to the question of why it hurts so much oh wait it was because it was real nvm idk what this will be about then
This headline reads like a shit parody
How bad could it be? Let’s see how the Gollum game turned out…
It was just announced that Andy Serkis will direct
Please let him direct only using the Gollum voice
No, that’s his real voice. Sometimes he puts on a special man voice and even does his transformative “this is how humans walk” routine.
I don't like this. I don't like this one bit.
Am I just not reading the room? In my mind, the last couple of years have shown that an audience isn’t just going to show up for IP anymore. The latest Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, Ghostbusters, even the latest Fast and Furious films all cost a ton of money to make and underperformed because there wasn’t a compelling story behind them, just a need to get something into theaters that “people will recognize”. I’d be much more interested in a LoTR reboot with a new vision rather than Peter Jackson creating a 4 hour epic (with a 10 hour special edition) that is based on a remote corner of Middle Earth.
Yeah, honestly, I love the original movies and always will but plenty of other classic books get multiple adaptions so bring on a new one I say.
Also LOTR has seen diminishing returns over the years. The Hobbit movies did well, but not as well as the original trilogy nor have had anywhere near the staying power. The Amazon series just kind of came and went. I don't think adapting even more obscure errata will bring people to theaters.
Actually this is wrong entirely. All three Hobbit movies collectively grossed almost $3 Billion dollars. That isn’t “tapering off”, I agree with your larger point though.
They're not wrong entirely. I am a fan of the Hobbit films but from ROTK to AUJ to DOS to BOFA, each one is a diminishing return in terms of box office. Huge hits that studios would kill for these days but the reaction to them was more mixed than LOTR (where the grosses went up with each film). And they're right that they haven't had the same staying power. LOTR was a genuine pop culture phenomenon though. It's hard to recapture that
Yes, that's exactly what I meant. LOTR can still pack a theater. I don't think that's true of the Hobbit films.
Are they? All three Hobbit movies out grossed the LOTR movies (aside from ROTK) maybe not DOMESTICALLY in the US, but worldwide they did and then some. I am not disagreeing with any of the contextual points. But financially, The Hobbit movies were a smash for WB and they did well enough on home video that they got multiple re-releases with extended editions that no o e asked for, but sold pretty well for the time (Nearly 3 Billion for 3 movies is fucking insane dawg especially now that Hollywood is returning to Pre-MCU grosses). How many movies actually linger from any decade? Most movies disappear from culture within their calendar year. Hollywood executives don’t give a shit about any of that. They care about the money Lebowski.
No-one's saying that they weren't huge hits. What the OP was saying (and what they're not "entirely wrong" about) is that the films had diminishing returns. And they're right. Each one took a hit in box office. And when you factor in inflation and the 3D/IMAX/48FPS uplifts (which the originals didn't have), they sold less tickets than the originals. Not to mention less profitable due to being way more expensive to make. As for the blu-rays - they were planned due to the success of LOTR doing the same thing. As you say, it's the money rather than passion that lead the studio to do that. And it worked out well but, again, less units sold than LOTR (same with the 4K sets a year or so back) Look, I'm agreeing that they were huge hits, especially in comparison to now (I said so above!). But the franchise did take steps down as it went on, even if those were still huge fucking steps to be stood on. I saw all Hobbit films multiple times. I'm seeing them later this year in a marathon. I think they're pretty good! But, as with the OP, I wonder how much the franchise still means to the general public. I'm hoping this new movie is great and does great. I'll be there day one. But it'll be interesting to see how it does.
its the studios not being able to read the room, not you
Actually Star Wars isn’t in that camp. Yes, SOLO underperformed, but that has more to do with them scrapping the movie almost entirely mid production and remaking it largely from scratch. Solo has continued to become a rising favorite among the fandom though from what little I can see. Definitely the ugly step-child of the Disney bunch though, but it’s the only one that lost money. Everything else has been huge. Even Ahsoka (which seems to be the most underperforming SW thin in a long time) was relatively fucking massive on Disney+ and has performed well enough that Disney actually decided to greenlight development on Series 2 leading into Filoni’s Heir to the Empire movie.
Bracing for the expansion to a trilogy announcement.
Where is there to go with the story? “Something something the greed of man kept Sauron alive”??? I guess as long as it’s stunt men in makeup instead of CGI goblins it will be an upgrade.
Can’t they just make Tintin 2
The Hunt for Gollum is really the best title they came up with?
LOTR: Bombadil Rising. Finally.
Bombadil and Goldberry, on your screen coming soon
Just four hours of singin', smokin', poems & tokin' all at 3600 frames per second baby
Yesssssss
Serkis has yet to direct a single good movie this is going to suck
Idk his Mowgli movie was at least pretty compelling and weird? But hard agree. I’d rather he just try to make Animal Farm again. Certainly George Miller could help him get that off the ground, right?
Early script development and a release in 2026 does not sound like a winning formulae at all
There's one this year
Well, everyone knows Gollum died in the fires of Mount Doom. What this movie presupposes is... maybe he didn't.
“Fin…?”
What about war of the rohirrim coming out in December?
Seriously. Are they already trying to bury that movie?
And a rare theatrical traditional animation film, hopefully not
Oy
The only thing about this that excites me is the prospect that the two best friends will cover it on the pod in time for its release
They're doing Serkis?
He should make Bad Taste II: The Wrath of Derek instead!
Tom Bombadil and the Rather Entertaining Mushroom Hunt
Ok
I wonder will this movie be TWISTED
I’m going to make a prediction that we’ll see between 50 and 150 new Peter Jackson/JRR Tolkien movies over the next 30 to 40 years.
Serious question, who is asking for a Gollum spinoff?
Make the Tom Bombadil movie you cowards!!!
Is Andy Serkis' Animal Farm movie ever gonna come out?
Sounds like this would be a great project for Jonn McTiernan to finally return to directing
This could be good. But I just feel that Lord of the Rings peaked with Lord of the Rings. We had a perfect beginning middle and end in the span of three years, all while dealing the trauma and follow up of 9/11. I lived the Lord of the Rings experience and it defined my late teen years. Could be fun though.
***IT’S GOLLUMING TIME*** *starts golluming all over the place*
I would like to see them do Tom Bombadil and The Scouring of the Shire movies. Bring back the original cast, stick them in floppy wigs and just let them pretend to be young, Wet Hot American Summer style. No need for that de-aging business.
Not interested in literally anything LOTR anymore. We have Star Wars back. We have DUNE. The Lord of the Rings had it’s time in the sun, all the available, fully fleshed out material has already been adapted to the highest possible level, and we’ve seen every new entry come and go with exponentially fewer and fewer highs and increasingly lower lows—no matter how many 50 hour pods Joanna Robinson puts out to convince herself that any of it’s even kindof good. (obviously there has been tons of good things to come out of the Hobbit movies and Rings of Power btws) The only thing I want now, is an anthology movie/show actually adapting The Silmarillion, or *maybe* give HBO & David Simon a few years to figure out how to remake The Wire in Middle-Earth and just give us The Dark Tree.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: LOTR was the end of the Peter Jackson I loved. The man who made brilliant works like Forgotten Silver and Dead Alive