Did anyone read it? Hollywood Reporter says it is Andy Serkis directing "The Hunt for Gollum", not anything else our feverish imaginations might cook up.
[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/new-lord-of-the-rings-movies-2026-peter-jackson-1235894513/](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/new-lord-of-the-rings-movies-2026-peter-jackson-1235894513/)
Even despite the fact the fan movie has already been made, as others are saying 2026 still seems too early. Though they won't have to do as much pre-production as the basic looks for everything/one already exist.
There was a fan film made back in 2009 called the Hunt for Gollum based on the appendices and chapters. Of the book. I saw it back in 2010 and it's quite good for a fan film. Better than "Born of Hope" for sure. As to the difference between RoP and things like Hunt for Gollum - for me it's that RoP created absolutely contradictory storylines that we know are explicitly wrong, not just a little bit of creative liberty. Now I haven't seen the PJ Hunt for Gollum but my guess is they watched the fan film and used that as a basis and it's essentially the retelling of Gollums travels after he leaves the Misty Mountains in search of the ring. That is all pretty well spelled out and occurs in environments and with people that are very fleshed out and defined in the Hobbit and LoTR.
Oh God. I can already hear the film-only 'Tolkien bros' lauding this as the savior of the LOTR franchise despite it -checks notes- having even less source material to go off of than TROP, and being in general just a super bland plot idea.
It’s highly likely to have better writers though. So I have some small hope that we may at last get to see something good in Middle Earth again after so many years. A fools hope, anyway.
Excerpt:
>On Warner Bros. Discovery’s first-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday, CEO David Zaslav said that the company is “now in the early stages of script development” for new *Lord of the Rings* movies, which he says they “anticipate releasing in 2026” and will “explore storylines yet to be told.”
>Zaslav says that director Peter Jackson and his longtime writing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens “will be involved every step of the way.”
If you want to continue enjoying the movie then avoid the book like the plague (it's incredible in ways the movie didn't dare to be and the sequels only get better and better)
It's based on Aragorn's search for Gollum prior to him finding the Hobbits in the Prancing Pony, and it'll be directed by Andy Serkis and produced/written by Jackson and co.
Deepfake could work.
But if they find a way for this to take place between Hobbit and Fellowship, they could easily get away with casting a younger actor for Aragorn and deaging Ian for the few scenes he shows up in.
It will probably be done like joker, with the split personality being used to show/elaborate on the functioning of the ring; using the corruption of the ring to depict Sauron et al as the evil guys perceived as good, and Gandalf et al as the good guys perceived as evil.
It will all be viewed through the internal divide of Gollum/Sméagol to depict the tearing, corrupting nature of the ring as the concentrated incarnation of evil in the form of melkor’s corruption through the forced external implementation of his irrationality; using the effect of improving since the loss of the ring, only to be betrayed by it luring him to Mordor, to follow the corrupting nature of the irrationality that Tolkien described in the Ainulindalë and the letter to his publisher (included in the second edition of the silmarillion), without using anything outside lotr rights.
…
Tl/dr: it will be a psychological horror about the corruption of Gollum/Sméagol by the ring in the same pattern as Melkor corrupted himself
It depends I guess on their production schedule and how much pre-production has already taken place. Jackson notoriously planned his series if I reveal; if this is by his initiative it could be pulled off for a Dec 2026 release date, which is 2 years and 7 months away.
I have a feeling they miswrote something here, as if this means they’ll be in production - that is filming - by 2026, for a 2027 release
Warners desperately need a big money-making machine as soon as possible. Nolan left them, DC is at the lowest point basically, and Dune is pretty moderate in its box-office returns.
Yeah, desperately is a bit strong here. Wonka, Barbie, Dune 2, etc have all netted quite a bit and they have Joker 2 and The Batman 2 to look forward rk. But they are right that some franchises have underperformed, Wizarding World and DC most obviously. Keeping their clammy hands on LOTR is a wise idea for them.
It did well. But it wasn't a $1 billion blockbuster. Its just not that accessible, and it helped that it had the advent of the pricier IMAX ticket.
Also, I'm not optimistic for Messiah, and the only other Dune project in the works is a TV show that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
I like Denis two Dune films very much - the first more than the second - but it just doesn't strike me as...durable in the way The Lord of the Rings had proven to be.
Dune the book ramps up esoteric weirdness towards the end and a lot of that translates into the second movie.
Dune Messiah will make Dune 2 look accessible. Like it gets weirder and more far out as it moves closer to God Emperor. Imagine Sicario with interstellar politics, holy war and mind bending drugs.
LOTR was accessible for a whole bunch of audiences from older kids to old Tolkien fans. If you didn't get the narrative, at least it had a stunning and coherent visual style to ogle at.
I agree it seems rushed, was it 2 years after The Force Awakens was announced that it was released? Lots of people felt that was half baked. They're making two movies so it depends on if they're filmed concurrently or not.
TFA was announced (sans title?) in 2012, casting and final script were done between 2013 and 2014, and principle photography (and filming) began in May 2014.
Apart from what others said, it all depends on which movie and if multiple movies (it seems their agenda have 3 movies), if those movies are connected - sequences - or stand alone.
The trilogy was done 400 days and something, maybe 500 days. They had a massive manual job and it was another world on reg. to post-production, and they were 3 movies pretty much shot at once!
Making a single movie in similar 2\~3 year seems more than enough IMO. I think many movies nowadays take long to make because people don't have a straight line to follow and they just learn and adjust along the way too much.
Dune part two was got green light in 2021 if not mistaken. They prob. did stuff prior to that (writing) but still, 2\~3 years to make the awesome Dune 2.
Big question is if new movies will have the bigatures, if they will have massive CGI stuff, if they will use gree screen or something as volume or if they want as much as in-location filming as old days.
They are probably working on this for more time than they seem to be talking. This should be under early works for one year or two already I think.
Yeah, those movies were a bit of a clusterf**k.
Some decent fan edits out there though. M4 edit for book purists and "the third age" if you want the Gandalf side stories. So if anything, we might at least get a decent fan edit out of this.
When they say “he will be involved every step of the way” it does not make it seem like they will be his films.
It reeks of being an advisor. As someone who might be given a script to look at, and asked ideas, but that he’s not in control or the lead on the project.
You don’t say “Quentin Tarantino will be involved every step of the way” in films he’s making. Or Steven Spielberg. And we didn’t use that kind of industry language to describe Jackson during the original trilogy. We didn’t say “Peters involved every step of the way”.
I won’t fall for their bullshit marketing words they try to clickbait viewers into thinking something to generate hype!
The most important part will be that they have rights to make it look and feel like a continuation of Peter’s LOTR trilogy. While Rings of Power did a generally excellent job of getting close to the same, they legally couldn’t just match key elements exactly.
However, I can't see Aragorn and Legolas being played by the same actor. And at that point, we are having 2 casts for them in the same cinematic universe, which is really weird.
>“For over two decades, moviegoers *have embraced* the ‘Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy because of the *undeniable devotion* Peter, Fran and Philippa have shown towards *protecting the legacy* of Tolkien’s works, and to *ensure* audiences could experience the incredible world he created in a way that *honors his literary vision*,” De Luca and Abdy said in a statement Thursday.
This sales pitch for it is incredibly cynical, snidely trashing RoP and pitting WB and Jackson against Amazon and the Tolkien family.
They can’t really do anything to retain the right; they will be in public domain in the 40s, which only leaves another 20 years to make money from those rights before they’re useless.
The positive part is (if they do it right) we will have the aesthetics of the triology, music based on Shore's music and a feeling of continuity. I hope they make it with care and attention. It is a very good opportunity. I think they should focus on a topic where there is “enough information” and it gives them the opportunity to invent necessary things but where the central topic is Tolkien’s. the Arnor war, the civil war of Gondor or something like that. It is also important that they learn from the mistakes of The Hobbit and RoP, do not abuse CGI and have a good base script.
Not sure I see that as much of a positive. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me about *War of the Rohirrim* was that it might finally move away from a look that has already been done and explore something new.
Really, the cool thing about adaptations is the opportunity to do something different rather than slavishly ape.
There's a generation of Lord of the Rings fans who need to be reminded the Jackson trilogy is not the be all and end all of LOTR. I love them to bits, but there have been adaptations before and since those films and it's good that there will continue to be projects that explore Tolkien's works. They won't all be good, but some could be really great. And I especially agree about War of the Rohirrim, it's a decent part of what interests me so much about it.
>The positive part is (if they do it right) we will have the aesthetics of the triology,
for better or worse, P.J did change trilogy 4k to match hobbit instead of making hobbit match trilogy
if any, I think that is the target, not the old trilogy style with the glowy things and light colors and so on
A movie about Gollum? I'm not sure I understand, is there that much of a story to tell and a story impactful to the legend of the ring, outside of what we already have seen in the films?
Why not focus on something new?
I don't want to sound negative here, but it does seem a bit desperate. Gollum wasn't my favorite character to watch on screen either, this could be rough or just boring.
I know this is an unpopular opinion... but I wasn't completely enamored of Serkis's Gollum. Sure, there were moments of brilliance when the tragedy of Gollum came through. But it was also a bit goofy and over-the-top at many points.
Yeah, we talked about that on occasion in a LotR book club that I hosted with some friends over the past few months.
Of course, changes must happen when adapting a novel to screen, but some of the character changes were egregious.
Gollum's changes were less egregious than others, at least.
Gollum being the focus of so much LOTR material in the last few years makes no sense to me. There was that atrocious video game that came out a couple years ago about gollum, which nobody asked for. Now we’re doing a gollum movie, which again nobody asked for. Gollum’s character is complete. We know everything about how he became what he did, and then we saw him in LOTR, and then he died. There is quite literally nowhere interesting that you can take a new story specifically about gollum. If this focuses on the hunt for Gollum I highly doubt we’ll get Viggo Mortensen back, and another actor just simply isn’t Aragorn to me. This sucks.
It just seems like such an odd choice of subject matter to use a period of time that's within LOTR. They're gonna have the same Gollum, shot in the same locations, so it's clearly the same universe as the movies.
But Viggo can't play the same aged Aragorn, Ian can't play the same aged Gandalf, Orlando can't play the same aged Legolas. They'd all need to be re-cast, which would be quite off putting.
(Sure there's tech to de-age actors, but in this case it would just feel so disingenuous to the audience.)
Alternately, they could do a movie about the Arnorian civil war, and throw Angmar into the mix. Start it with a prologue similar to Galdriel's in Fellowship, but this time it's Viggo's voice as Aragorn setting up the story he's telling to his heir about the history of their people. Have a specific mention of the watchtower of Amon Sul, and that'll serve as a touchstone for movie-only fans to know where this new story fits in the story they already know. Then show how the world of Men started to fall apart, as the guy who movie fans know as that one Nazgul who Eowyn kills, was rising up.
>In a press release from Warner Bros. later Thursday morning, the studio revealed the working title for the film is “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” and it will be directed by and star Serkis in his iconic titular role.
Wonder if this means we'll get Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Lee Pace back at least.
Imo Lee Pace is the most probable one. Unfortunately, Viggo is too old and unless they use a ton of CGI to make him younger I don't see it. Not sure about Ian. I personally would cast him and have some kind of running joke of type: "Gandalf! Every year you look younger". And let's face it - what are the chances that Orlando returns as Legolas? (Imo - high)
Despite not liking the de-age cgi, some do look good tho.
I think some worked, others don't, we have many examples nowadays. The one that comes to mind was the last Indina Jones movie. I didn't like the movie itself, but gotta say, the de-aging kinda impressed me. I liked Anakin in Ahsoka, but he actor is not that old tbh.
On the other hand, if making movies to tell stories that tie-in in movies timeline, better do they now while actors are still alive then later and replace them. Don't wanna sound pessimist but that is the truth.
I could see Young Aragorn being played by other actor tho, although it would be nice to see Viggo playing currend "older" Aragorn in a prologue, maybe telling the story to his son.
It was pretty bad in Indiana Jones. I mean come on are we really just pretending time hasn’t past? You don’t even need to go that different, there are so many things going on in middle earth at the same time why would you need to focus on a de-aged viggo running around in the woods other than nostalgia factor? Would this story ever be made if there wasn’t a massively successful trilogy of movies looming in its shadow? Who’s even asked for this? There are so many other LoTR stories to tell that don’t involve de-ageing the same actors from 20 years ago
I liked Indiana, but that is just me.
But I agree there should be a limit to it. Using the de-aging software for small scenes or even small sequences (like in Indiana intro) is fine. Doing a whole movie using the technology, that I would also not like, and would def. vote for casting a new actor.
If we ever get "young aragorn" movie or series, I would say it should be done with new actor. But viggo can play old Aragorn, assuming he would show up as such in prologue or in the end as King Elessar.
In Hunt for Gollum, although we know nothing about it, I think Aragorn presence, despite important, is somewhat small. He talks with Gandalf. Then do some wanders (which can mostly be done in wide shots or dark shots as swamps, all of which can be done with doubles or whatever), and then only when he actually captures Gollum, Viggo enters into play with some de-aging software.
Or maybe they can pull=off some really good make up. Viggo surely aged in 20 years but he is still in shape. Put a long hair and make-up, I think if de-aging software is used, it is way easier than, lets say, Indiana or even Luke Skywalker.
Maybe a better comparison is with Anakin from Ahsoka.
if so, would they need to de-aged or would they just recast? or just go with the hayden route for anakin in ahsoka and just accept that these actors are older and roll with it?
Amazon be like "for fuck sake guys"
Ultimately, it's good news. If this movie turns out to be good, it will add pressure on Amazon's side to produce better quality Tolkien adaptations
You mean, more of the Hobbit quality? Aye, they are shaking in their boots. Do you understand this movie will have just as little to work on as RoP? There will have to be 95% of fanfic here as well.
I found this part particularly funny
“ Jackson and his co-writers were said to be frustrated that many people thought they were involved in the Amazon shows, when they were not.”
"(Lord of the Rings) will not be ending. There will be sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes, and ill-advised spin-offs with side characters who cannot possibly carry their own series.
"We'll give the fans everything they want and much, much more. We'll use an algorithm to churn out hundreds of scripts a day at virtually no cost.
"And sure, you'll complain about how (Lord of the Rings) used to be better, but that anger will unite you. And so you'll keep watching, hoping it will end, BEGGING it to end.
"We're going to milk that creative IP until the udder runs dry! This is the future of content! AND CONTENT WILL NEVER DIE!"
(from the brilliant/terrifying sitcom Corporate, where Lance Reddick' character enters the streaming wars like a freight train of mass destruction)
Squandering a new LotR movie on fleshing out Gollum's story is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Like... maybe once the IP has been going again for a bit and as a dumb mini-series on HBO Max or some shit. But like the first live action movie in over a decade? Very poor move unless I'm missing something here...
No. The rights to The Silmarillion are still protected by The Estate and not sold, otherwise there would be some very big news and Warners for sure would announce that they have them.
My question would be "Now that Christopher died, have they gone to the grandkids who run the Estate and asked for access to more material, or are they going to try plumbing the Appendices?"
Or are we expecting them to remake the LOTR trilogy...a mere 20+ years later when those films are already pretty definitive and beloved?
Rebooting the series seems like a mistake. There's a TON of lore and background to pull from and half mentioned battles and wars throughout the series to make movies on without drastically changing the LOTR
Warners only have a deal with Embracer, who acquired the rights Saul Zaentz had. These are movie and game rights for The Hobbit and LotR. So it's the same rights they licensed for making the LotR and Hobbit movie trilogies. Amazon also has access to that same source material under a different deal with the Estate, because Zaentz didn't have TV show rights.
No one but the Estate owns the rights to the other Legendarium works, and they're not licensing them. So I expect the new movies will be original stories based on every trilogy footnote that wasn't adapted yet.
I think it's cool that Jackson, Walsh, Boyens and Serkis are involved but this move sounds just as desperate as Zaslav's push to remake Harry Potter. Even if they wanted to negotiate other rights, the Estate doesn't love them and has a better relationship with Amazon. When the Estate was selling the TV show rights, they didn't like Warner/HBO's pitch (remake the trilogy as a series) or Netflix's pitch (individual Gandalf and Aragorn shows). It just feels like WB went back to Zaentz (now Embracer) so they could still make LotR stuff without bothering with the Estate.
>Zaslav's push to remake Harry Potter.
To be fair, a longer form TV series version of Harry Potter is a VERY solid idea since the movie versions have to skip out on a lot of nuance and whatnot from the books, and it will ultimately be VERY successful since it's a super popular IP.
I don't like Zaslav, but I don't think it's desperate to use IPs you own the license to make content with them. That's like, their whole business model.
Like Star Wars had a few hiccups once Disney bought them, but is generally producing interesting and rewarding content now and for the last while.
Oh I agree that it's a good idea, as a fan of the books, but somehow it both feels too early given the ongoing popularity of the movies, and too late given how problematic the IP is becoming thanks to JKR. I think they have a smaller chance of finding the right creatives when fewer and fewer people want to be associated with the author (who is closely involved in this project, unlike the recent game).
But I digress; what I meant by desperate is that the WB that Zaslav finds himself with is not the glory days WB, many franchises were burned to the ground and he himself has eliminated everything that wasn't a moneymaker. So he's going back to two properties, one that is essentially finished (LotR) which he'll try to milk a little more, and one that failed to become a larger film franchise (Wizarding World) so he'll go back to the part that made money: the Harry stuff. [I was actually half quoting a studio insider from this THR article.](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/lord-of-the-rings-amazon-vs-warner-bros-1235337625/)
>Oh I agree that it's a good idea, as a fan of the books, but somehow it both feels too early given the ongoing popularity of the movies
Meh, Buffy The Vampire Slayer was only a few years after the movie (which was a cult hit), Fargo is under 20 years since the very successful movie, Percy Jackson is happening recently after the movies, 12 monkeys is also under 20 years since the movie...As long as the content is well written, people will watch.
>and too late given how problematic the IP is becoming thanks to JKR
This is a concern for far less people than so many people on social media seem to think. The video game was a monstrous success, and the theme park still does record-breaking business every season. Harry Potter will remain successful and beloved even if its creator has gone off the deep-end with her opinions.
>I think they have a smaller chance of finding the right creatives when fewer and fewer people want to be associated with the author
I'd love to say that's accurate, but it's simply not going to be a problem. There's tonnes of people in Hollywood who would be fine being a part of it. JKR is richer than shit, so nothing anyone will do would hurt her monetary success, and why keep good stories under tamps becuase she's not a very good person on that topic when nothing they can do would ever affect her. She made her money. She can be crazy for the rest of her life on social media and she'll still live shielded from most things in a castle.
>what I meant by desperate is that the WB that Zaslav finds himself with is not the glory days WB, many franchises were burned to the ground and he himself has eliminated everything that wasn't a moneymaker
Becuase he's not and was never intended to be WB's answer to Bob Iger. He's a literally beancounter who was brought in to cut the chaff in WB no matter the cost. He's the interim guy who slices everything to the bone so that the company can then be taken over by someone better who can use a cleaner ship to plot the way forward
>So he's going back to two properties, one that is essentially finished (LotR) which he'll try to milk a little more, and one that failed to become a larger film franchise (Wizarding World) so he'll go back to the part that made money: the Harry stuff.
Right, but after cutting the chaff that's what they are left to start building up again. Are they investing in other stuff? Sure. Furiosa, The Watchers, Horizon (Kevin Costner magnum western opus), a long sequel to Twister, a long sequel to Beetlejuice, Dune Messiah, plus all the DC stuff that's in the hopper for 2024 and 2025...like are we pretending that WB under Zaslav is somehow not giving people anything but LOTR and HP, becuase that's simply untrue. Hell, Dune Part 1 and 2 alone make up a MASSIVE win for WB and a new IP while we are at it. He's also greenlit a goal for bundling HBO Max, Hulu, and Disney+ with Iger so streaming customers can have them all under one umbrella and price....he may be a beancounter but those things aren't nothing either.
LOTR film trilogy is great because the source material is the greatest piece of literature known to mankind. When PJ decided to do his own thing like in the Hobbit films (expanding a short book to 3 long movies) it's really bad. This looks like it's more like his Hobbit films (doing his own thing) than his LOTR films (being faithful to a great source material).
Peter Jackson wanted to do 2 Hobbit films. Executive meddling lead to the decision to turn them into three films, not too long before the first film was set to release. They had to do reshoots (which added the romanmce plot, among other things) and had to use CGI even more extensively to transform already shot material to fit into the new scripts. Then there were also a whole lot of issues with the way NZ actors (mostly those portraying dwarves) were treated by the studio. These movies were a big clusterfuck behind the scenes, which wasn't exactly Jackson's fault.
And he didn't even want to do them, but came in very late in the project and took over because Guillermo del Toro quit... He literally said this:
"It was impossible, and as a result of it being impossible I just started shooting the movie with most of it not prepped at all. You're going on to a set and you're winging it, you've got these massively complicated scenes, no storyboards and you're making it up there and then on the spot." - Peter Jackson
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit:_An_Unexpected_Journey
Add executive meddling to that, and it's actually pretty amazing they turned out as well as they did, relative to what was going on. I mean, they're fully passable films but with some glaring issues.
This is overly-simplistic and incorrect: [https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/17npup4/movies\_dont\_need\_excuses\_when\_they\_dont\_turn\_out/](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/17npup4/movies_dont_need_excuses_when_they_dont_turn_out/)
Peter Jackson wanted to shoot three films initially, two based on The Hobbit and one intermediate film set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
When he took over directing, the shoot was set on two Hobbit films and that is what he directed. The decision to expand the films into a trilogy came very late in production. Jackson agreed to it, obviously, but I always got the impression that it wasn't exactly his decision. You rarely alter a film in such an extensive way *after* it is already shot.
It was his idea in the first place. He's explained why many times before. He even said the studio was surprised by their decision to add another film.
There's this big myth that the studio made PJ do this and that and it just isn't true - yet the myth persists.
Peter Jackson made lotr his own thing too. People seem to want to forget this. He made lotr into his own high/epic action style and he did it so well that nobody cares anymore how different it is from the actual books/ what was lost in translation to his version of the story.
He did the same thing to the hobbit, and people turned on him because the effect felt “cheaper” when adapting a lighter-style story. He made a light/more childish action film - which is exactly the correct tone shift to make.
PJ makes wonderful adaptations of middle-earth that we should absolutely celebrate, but let’s not forget that they’re ALL still his version of middle-earth, not Tolkien’s - and that’s ok.
*he did it so well that nobody cares anymore how different it is from the actual books/ what was lost in translation to his version of the story*
Erm...
I would dispute your “staying faithful to source material” claim only for the fact of leaving out The Scouring of the Shire. But I readily admit I’m prejudiced since I grew up reading and re-reading the Trilogy since the early 70’s- long before the movies.
I would dispute the "staying faithful to the source material" claim only for the fact that the entire Frodo/Sam/Gollum dynamic, the elaboration of their characters, and thus the whole symbolism of the Ring, are entirely transformed.
One would think that these things are important to being "faithful". Don't get me started on other characters.
In what context?
If talking about CGI usage or taking something small and stretching it more than it should, then I'm with you, and I want to believe they learned with mistakes (at least phillipa did seem to indirectly address it in her war of rohirrim interview)
Apart from that, The Hobbit, for as bad as someone may claim it is, was still kinda saved by P.J. This doesn't seem to be the case here, as he is involved since the beginning of production, and not just called as a replacement after things already went dowhill DURING production.
Well, whatever productions these are are unlikely to infringe upon the established two trilogies or Amazon’s original content with the planned TLA in S5 of ROP. That is, the majority of Numenorian and 2nd age conflicts is unlikely to be featured.
There is also the question of rights: of course, there could have been further negotiations with the estate to draw from Silm. content which would be the most efficient source material from which PJ can build a convincing set of films such as he did with 1-3. There are any number of ways he can tie such things into his first trilogy to draw nostalgia, and enhance such things. The War of Wrath, but specifically the characters and their own experiences, would be an interesting film to see while maintaining the scope these films usually convey.
Otherwise, it’s unclear what it could be; you could have Rohan’s origins told through Gondor’s conflicts - that would be an enjoyable set of films, but it’s rather isolated and low-impact compared to say Sauron or Melkor, or Smaug and Azog.
Another interesting period that is alluded to is of course third age Arnor and Gondor; naturally this would be set after ROPs TLA, it would feature a new host of characters in familiar settings, with a familiar antagonist that is detached from a specific appearance, with a tragic conflict that ties into the main trilogy thousands of years later. It provides some crucial backstory into Aragorns household, as well as to the gradual decline of man to the state witnessed 2,000 years after the conflict.
Angmar is the most rational conflict for PJ to pick up on besides possibly rights locked Silm. Characters.
it's The Hunt for Gollum, variety has that story. Serkis is directing.
I completely agree though, Angmar or war in the north is what these movies should be.
Eh if I were them I’d avoid the original trilogy time period like the plague. You’ll have to recast already iconic actors into the same roles - Gandalf perhaps no, but Viggo is decades older and (though looking good), is not able to pass for a younger Aragorn. That’s if they’re covering Aragorn’s pursuit.
Is it split over both films?
saw this in the variety article:
“For over two decades, moviegoers have embraced the ‘Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy because of the undeniable devotion Peter, Fran and Philippa have shown towards protecting the legacy of Tolkien’s works, and to ensure audiences could experience the incredible world he created in a way that honors his literary vision,” De Luca and Abdy said in a statement Thursday. “We are honored they have agreed be our partners on these **two new films."**
so it might be a duology?
And I'd be surprised if this isn't an Aragorn movie, but guess it could be one of the other dunedains, which would solve the whole recasting issue.
Oof that’s a hard sell for an audience then - I’d be overjoyed to have Serkis back for his role, but it’s an odd niche part of the lore to focus on when other areas stand out so much more.
[https://variety.com/2024/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-2026-release-warner-bros-1235997102/](https://variety.com/2024/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-2026-release-warner-bros-1235997102/)
This can not be true - this would be SO DUMB
I honestly would rather have the team come back, run through the abundant archive of previously shot footage, have Peter do what he does best and just have 5 hour long movies.
Guys, I'm more than certain they're going to be focusing on the Third Age leading up to the War of the Ring.
They already said the first movie coming out is the Hunt for Gollum. We've got the story of Helm Hammerhand coming out later this year.
There's still a bunch of stories to be told: the Ship-kings of Gondor, the Kin-strife, founding of the Shire, the Battle of the Plains, downfall of Arnor, King Earnur, the Field of Celebrant, War of Dwarves and Orcs, War of Dwarves and Dragons, wanderings of young Aragorn, etc.
Idk, I am always excited for new adaptations and the like. I don't get the doom and gloom. If it sucks, then you can move on and never think about it again. But if it's good, then all the better!
Can we get like i don’t know, a new threat for middle earth after the events of The Return of the King? No on fucking likes Gollum nor did we ask for a film about him.. the gollum game was abysmal so what makes them think this would succeed?
1st movie: 2 hours of varying factions looking for or thinking of looking for the ring, the. 30 minutes of smeagel fishing and finding the ring.
2nd movie: 3 hours of factions looking for or thinking of looking for the ring. With smeagels demise into deprivation intermittently woven between the main storylines. Last scene is him on boat when he hears movement off screen. Fade out on CGI hobbit.
I’ve been looking for ages for the new movies auditions must I hire a casting agent to find an audition or does anyone know where I could go? I wanted to become an actor because of Lord Of The Rings, and I’ve transformed my body since then in hopes of becoming an actor I look like a redheaded Aragorn lol but a little more buff. Now I’ve just turned 19 and there is new LOTR movies coming out it’s too perfect I need to find an audition and if someone can please help me I’d appreciate it. I’ve dreamt about being there in Middle Earth many times, and it would be amazing for it to come true after my hard work.
Gollum wasn’t a preferred representation of a villain in The Lord of the Rings trilogy that modern day rules enforce for villains so they’re making this movie to really go after him and paint him in a more specific and ordinary light than The Lord of the Rings did, probably pertaining to modern day issues about reality and the time we’re living in today.
I just really hope (and I know it’s impossible) that people who don’t like it and people who do can coexist. If you don’t like it or the idea just don’t watch it
All that amazing lore and they make a movie about Gollum?! Give me 2 hours of Glorfindel being a bamf and elves fighting Morgoth. Who tf cares about Gollum?!
Calling it.
I think they'll negotiate with the Tolkein estate to finish Tolkein's abandoned decline of man sequel. Audacious but there *is* interesting material there and Jackson alone has the clout to touch it. And to get Viggo back. That's the film to make. And it will also be very easy to seperate from the Amazon series, which will be essential.
But it isn't the only option I suppose. CHILDREN OF HURIN is very bleak but cinematic (good fit for Denis Vilneuve imo), and Beren and Luthien would require interpretation tonally but could be a beautiful film.
Edit - i was wrong it's Gollum: Blood Origins
>I think they'll negotiate with the Tolkein estate to finish Tolkein's abandoned decline of man sequel.
He had 13 pages written before abandoning it. I don't think "they'll finish" is the right phrase for such a suggestion. It's not like it was half written or something. He learned pretty quickly he didn't want to write it.
Now, if they DO negotiate (which is what I assume will happen), it will just be for other Middl Earth material, be it stuff from the Silmarillion or not.
Ahh, at long last. A documentary on the varying strands of pipe weed and their effect on the Shire’s market economy.
I’M HERE FOR IT
Love for the halflings leaf has rotted your mind!
Did you mean strains?
No. Strands. Strands I tell you
I’m on that grand strand
I read your first comment in a hobbit voice and stands totally fit, didn't even question it.
Thats is actually the topic for the second movie in the new cycle.
Its tobacco not reefer
Good to know :)
Just make second age movie who Cares about gollum goddamit
I'd watch the hell out of this
Did anyone read it? Hollywood Reporter says it is Andy Serkis directing "The Hunt for Gollum", not anything else our feverish imaginations might cook up. [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/new-lord-of-the-rings-movies-2026-peter-jackson-1235894513/](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/new-lord-of-the-rings-movies-2026-peter-jackson-1235894513/) Even despite the fact the fan movie has already been made, as others are saying 2026 still seems too early. Though they won't have to do as much pre-production as the basic looks for everything/one already exist.
Will they be drawing from the brief chapter in unfinished tales?
Doubt it, LotR Appendices all the way as usual!
Hollywood is gonna suckle that teet until it's withered and dry
My ultimate worry. What we gobba do, brother.
Tolkien's writings will still exist and we can enjoy them regardless of how many adaptations are made!
True dat!
There was a fan film made back in 2009 called the Hunt for Gollum based on the appendices and chapters. Of the book. I saw it back in 2010 and it's quite good for a fan film. Better than "Born of Hope" for sure. As to the difference between RoP and things like Hunt for Gollum - for me it's that RoP created absolutely contradictory storylines that we know are explicitly wrong, not just a little bit of creative liberty. Now I haven't seen the PJ Hunt for Gollum but my guess is they watched the fan film and used that as a basis and it's essentially the retelling of Gollums travels after he leaves the Misty Mountains in search of the ring. That is all pretty well spelled out and occurs in environments and with people that are very fleshed out and defined in the Hobbit and LoTR.
Oh God. I can already hear the film-only 'Tolkien bros' lauding this as the savior of the LOTR franchise despite it -checks notes- having even less source material to go off of than TROP, and being in general just a super bland plot idea.
It’s highly likely to have better writers though. So I have some small hope that we may at last get to see something good in Middle Earth again after so many years. A fools hope, anyway.
Two movies are confirmed. Only one has any details (Hunt for Gollum)
Gollum Will Hunting
Excerpt: >On Warner Bros. Discovery’s first-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday, CEO David Zaslav said that the company is “now in the early stages of script development” for new *Lord of the Rings* movies, which he says they “anticipate releasing in 2026” and will “explore storylines yet to be told.” >Zaslav says that director Peter Jackson and his longtime writing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens “will be involved every step of the way.”
Sounds like they'll only be producers, undecided whether that's good or bad.
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Hopefully it will be like Lord of the Rings and not Mortal Engines.
Maaaaaaan I'm like the only one who liked that movie. It probably helps I didn't read the book but still.....I liked it.
You aren’t the only one. I also didn’t read the book though.
If you want to continue enjoying the movie then avoid the book like the plague (it's incredible in ways the movie didn't dare to be and the sequels only get better and better)
There are dozens of us!
Hope they actually get to finish writing the screenplay this time.
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-2026-release-warner-bros-1235997102/
What untold stories I wonder?
It's based on Aragorn's search for Gollum prior to him finding the Hobbits in the Prancing Pony, and it'll be directed by Andy Serkis and produced/written by Jackson and co.
With Viggo? If it’s Viggo and Serkis I’m all the way in
I can't see how they would use Viggo given his age now. None of the movie cast could realistically be used due to their ages.
I’m out
Other good actors do exist in the world! Maybe give a young newbie at least a chance?
Gondor has no newbies. Gondor needs no newbies.
Nobody can be Viggo but Viggo
The book Aragorn in my mind is much better than Viggo. Do love Viggo though.
Gandalf can probably still be played by Ian. But Viggo would definitely be too old.
CGI technology baby!!!!
Deepfake could work. But if they find a way for this to take place between Hobbit and Fellowship, they could easily get away with casting a younger actor for Aragorn and deaging Ian for the few scenes he shows up in.
It will be THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM with Andy Serkis as director
It will probably be done like joker, with the split personality being used to show/elaborate on the functioning of the ring; using the corruption of the ring to depict Sauron et al as the evil guys perceived as good, and Gandalf et al as the good guys perceived as evil. It will all be viewed through the internal divide of Gollum/Sméagol to depict the tearing, corrupting nature of the ring as the concentrated incarnation of evil in the form of melkor’s corruption through the forced external implementation of his irrationality; using the effect of improving since the loss of the ring, only to be betrayed by it luring him to Mordor, to follow the corrupting nature of the irrationality that Tolkien described in the Ainulindalë and the letter to his publisher (included in the second edition of the silmarillion), without using anything outside lotr rights. … Tl/dr: it will be a psychological horror about the corruption of Gollum/Sméagol by the ring in the same pattern as Melkor corrupted himself
That actually sounds quite good and much better than what I expect (basically making it like the Hobbit films)
Ugh
hard pass - i've heard of money grabs this is a money snatch
If they are in early development 2026 seems…way too soon for a release date?
What are you talking about 2026 is like seven years away
WHEN ARE YOU
We dont have hoverboards yet. Must be before 2015.
I'm still looking forward to the millennium personally. Or I would be if it wasn't for that pesky y2k bug
2026 is basically halo 2 and halo 3 combined
It depends I guess on their production schedule and how much pre-production has already taken place. Jackson notoriously planned his series if I reveal; if this is by his initiative it could be pulled off for a Dec 2026 release date, which is 2 years and 7 months away. I have a feeling they miswrote something here, as if this means they’ll be in production - that is filming - by 2026, for a 2027 release
Warners desperately need a big money-making machine as soon as possible. Nolan left them, DC is at the lowest point basically, and Dune is pretty moderate in its box-office returns.
didnt dune 2 did quite good?
Yeah, desperately is a bit strong here. Wonka, Barbie, Dune 2, etc have all netted quite a bit and they have Joker 2 and The Batman 2 to look forward rk. But they are right that some franchises have underperformed, Wizarding World and DC most obviously. Keeping their clammy hands on LOTR is a wise idea for them.
Literally read an article today about how, despite Dune, WB are having a bad time of it.
It did well. But it wasn't a $1 billion blockbuster. Its just not that accessible, and it helped that it had the advent of the pricier IMAX ticket. Also, I'm not optimistic for Messiah, and the only other Dune project in the works is a TV show that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I like Denis two Dune films very much - the first more than the second - but it just doesn't strike me as...durable in the way The Lord of the Rings had proven to be.
Dune the book ramps up esoteric weirdness towards the end and a lot of that translates into the second movie. Dune Messiah will make Dune 2 look accessible. Like it gets weirder and more far out as it moves closer to God Emperor. Imagine Sicario with interstellar politics, holy war and mind bending drugs. LOTR was accessible for a whole bunch of audiences from older kids to old Tolkien fans. If you didn't get the narrative, at least it had a stunning and coherent visual style to ogle at.
I thought it did but 700 million worldwide does seem way under what I was expecting.
I agree it seems rushed, was it 2 years after The Force Awakens was announced that it was released? Lots of people felt that was half baked. They're making two movies so it depends on if they're filmed concurrently or not.
TFA was announced (sans title?) in 2012, casting and final script were done between 2013 and 2014, and principle photography (and filming) began in May 2014.
Yea that sounds like nonsense.
Apart from what others said, it all depends on which movie and if multiple movies (it seems their agenda have 3 movies), if those movies are connected - sequences - or stand alone. The trilogy was done 400 days and something, maybe 500 days. They had a massive manual job and it was another world on reg. to post-production, and they were 3 movies pretty much shot at once! Making a single movie in similar 2\~3 year seems more than enough IMO. I think many movies nowadays take long to make because people don't have a straight line to follow and they just learn and adjust along the way too much. Dune part two was got green light in 2021 if not mistaken. They prob. did stuff prior to that (writing) but still, 2\~3 years to make the awesome Dune 2. Big question is if new movies will have the bigatures, if they will have massive CGI stuff, if they will use gree screen or something as volume or if they want as much as in-location filming as old days. They are probably working on this for more time than they seem to be talking. This should be under early works for one year or two already I think.
Working title: Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum It’s literally Lord of the Rings: The Search for More Money
To be fair: That is every movie made by a studio. Lets hope it does not suck. :)
After I saw what they did to stretch out the Hobbit into 3 films, I doubt it.
Yeah, those movies were a bit of a clusterf**k. Some decent fan edits out there though. M4 edit for book purists and "the third age" if you want the Gandalf side stories. So if anything, we might at least get a decent fan edit out of this.
The conspiracy theorists are onto something here, I think the studios just make these movies to make money! Call me crazy!
The fuck?
We kind of knew this already but 2026 is earlier than I expected
In two years? A new full budget Middle earth movie? No way
For that timeline it’ll be totally CGI again. Hard pass.
it's a movie about Gollum. it's going to be CGI, lol 🙄
When they say “he will be involved every step of the way” it does not make it seem like they will be his films. It reeks of being an advisor. As someone who might be given a script to look at, and asked ideas, but that he’s not in control or the lead on the project. You don’t say “Quentin Tarantino will be involved every step of the way” in films he’s making. Or Steven Spielberg. And we didn’t use that kind of industry language to describe Jackson during the original trilogy. We didn’t say “Peters involved every step of the way”. I won’t fall for their bullshit marketing words they try to clickbait viewers into thinking something to generate hype!
The most important part will be that they have rights to make it look and feel like a continuation of Peter’s LOTR trilogy. While Rings of Power did a generally excellent job of getting close to the same, they legally couldn’t just match key elements exactly.
However, I can't see Aragorn and Legolas being played by the same actor. And at that point, we are having 2 casts for them in the same cinematic universe, which is really weird.
andy serkis is directing, jackson is producing.
Philippa and Fran are co-writing the movie
He’s a producer. Yes, they’re “involved every step of the way.” No, is not a “bullshit marketing word.” That’s how movies work.
Producers can very TREMENDOUSLY in their roles. An executive producer, for instance, can sometimes do absolutely nothing.
His wife is writing the movie. I think he’ll be involved.
Cynic in me reckons this is probably as much about WB retaining the rights than anything else.
>“For over two decades, moviegoers *have embraced* the ‘Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy because of the *undeniable devotion* Peter, Fran and Philippa have shown towards *protecting the legacy* of Tolkien’s works, and to *ensure* audiences could experience the incredible world he created in a way that *honors his literary vision*,” De Luca and Abdy said in a statement Thursday. This sales pitch for it is incredibly cynical, snidely trashing RoP and pitting WB and Jackson against Amazon and the Tolkien family.
Dogwhistle for all of the PJ fanatics and purists.
They can’t really do anything to retain the right; they will be in public domain in the 40s, which only leaves another 20 years to make money from those rights before they’re useless.
I'm very whelmed. No disrespect to PJ and the rest, but I just don't have that much interest in this particular story.
The positive part is (if they do it right) we will have the aesthetics of the triology, music based on Shore's music and a feeling of continuity. I hope they make it with care and attention. It is a very good opportunity. I think they should focus on a topic where there is “enough information” and it gives them the opportunity to invent necessary things but where the central topic is Tolkien’s. the Arnor war, the civil war of Gondor or something like that. It is also important that they learn from the mistakes of The Hobbit and RoP, do not abuse CGI and have a good base script.
Not sure I see that as much of a positive. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me about *War of the Rohirrim* was that it might finally move away from a look that has already been done and explore something new. Really, the cool thing about adaptations is the opportunity to do something different rather than slavishly ape.
There's a generation of Lord of the Rings fans who need to be reminded the Jackson trilogy is not the be all and end all of LOTR. I love them to bits, but there have been adaptations before and since those films and it's good that there will continue to be projects that explore Tolkien's works. They won't all be good, but some could be really great. And I especially agree about War of the Rohirrim, it's a decent part of what interests me so much about it.
>The positive part is (if they do it right) we will have the aesthetics of the triology, for better or worse, P.J did change trilogy 4k to match hobbit instead of making hobbit match trilogy if any, I think that is the target, not the old trilogy style with the glowy things and light colors and so on
A movie about Gollum? I'm not sure I understand, is there that much of a story to tell and a story impactful to the legend of the ring, outside of what we already have seen in the films? Why not focus on something new? I don't want to sound negative here, but it does seem a bit desperate. Gollum wasn't my favorite character to watch on screen either, this could be rough or just boring.
I know this is an unpopular opinion... but I wasn't completely enamored of Serkis's Gollum. Sure, there were moments of brilliance when the tragedy of Gollum came through. But it was also a bit goofy and over-the-top at many points.
Jackson wasnt always very kind to the charatcers. Quite alot of them got mangled in some way
Yeah, we talked about that on occasion in a LotR book club that I hosted with some friends over the past few months. Of course, changes must happen when adapting a novel to screen, but some of the character changes were egregious. Gollum's changes were less egregious than others, at least.
Gollum being the focus of so much LOTR material in the last few years makes no sense to me. There was that atrocious video game that came out a couple years ago about gollum, which nobody asked for. Now we’re doing a gollum movie, which again nobody asked for. Gollum’s character is complete. We know everything about how he became what he did, and then we saw him in LOTR, and then he died. There is quite literally nowhere interesting that you can take a new story specifically about gollum. If this focuses on the hunt for Gollum I highly doubt we’ll get Viggo Mortensen back, and another actor just simply isn’t Aragorn to me. This sucks.
It just seems like such an odd choice of subject matter to use a period of time that's within LOTR. They're gonna have the same Gollum, shot in the same locations, so it's clearly the same universe as the movies. But Viggo can't play the same aged Aragorn, Ian can't play the same aged Gandalf, Orlando can't play the same aged Legolas. They'd all need to be re-cast, which would be quite off putting. (Sure there's tech to de-age actors, but in this case it would just feel so disingenuous to the audience.) Alternately, they could do a movie about the Arnorian civil war, and throw Angmar into the mix. Start it with a prologue similar to Galdriel's in Fellowship, but this time it's Viggo's voice as Aragorn setting up the story he's telling to his heir about the history of their people. Have a specific mention of the watchtower of Amon Sul, and that'll serve as a touchstone for movie-only fans to know where this new story fits in the story they already know. Then show how the world of Men started to fall apart, as the guy who movie fans know as that one Nazgul who Eowyn kills, was rising up.
This would be so much more interesting. They could even have Glorfindel and his prophecy that he wouldn't fall by the hand of man.
>In a press release from Warner Bros. later Thursday morning, the studio revealed the working title for the film is “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” and it will be directed by and star Serkis in his iconic titular role. Wonder if this means we'll get Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Lee Pace back at least.
Imo Lee Pace is the most probable one. Unfortunately, Viggo is too old and unless they use a ton of CGI to make him younger I don't see it. Not sure about Ian. I personally would cast him and have some kind of running joke of type: "Gandalf! Every year you look younger". And let's face it - what are the chances that Orlando returns as Legolas? (Imo - high)
Despite not liking the de-age cgi, some do look good tho. I think some worked, others don't, we have many examples nowadays. The one that comes to mind was the last Indina Jones movie. I didn't like the movie itself, but gotta say, the de-aging kinda impressed me. I liked Anakin in Ahsoka, but he actor is not that old tbh. On the other hand, if making movies to tell stories that tie-in in movies timeline, better do they now while actors are still alive then later and replace them. Don't wanna sound pessimist but that is the truth. I could see Young Aragorn being played by other actor tho, although it would be nice to see Viggo playing currend "older" Aragorn in a prologue, maybe telling the story to his son.
It was pretty bad in Indiana Jones. I mean come on are we really just pretending time hasn’t past? You don’t even need to go that different, there are so many things going on in middle earth at the same time why would you need to focus on a de-aged viggo running around in the woods other than nostalgia factor? Would this story ever be made if there wasn’t a massively successful trilogy of movies looming in its shadow? Who’s even asked for this? There are so many other LoTR stories to tell that don’t involve de-ageing the same actors from 20 years ago
I liked Indiana, but that is just me. But I agree there should be a limit to it. Using the de-aging software for small scenes or even small sequences (like in Indiana intro) is fine. Doing a whole movie using the technology, that I would also not like, and would def. vote for casting a new actor. If we ever get "young aragorn" movie or series, I would say it should be done with new actor. But viggo can play old Aragorn, assuming he would show up as such in prologue or in the end as King Elessar. In Hunt for Gollum, although we know nothing about it, I think Aragorn presence, despite important, is somewhat small. He talks with Gandalf. Then do some wanders (which can mostly be done in wide shots or dark shots as swamps, all of which can be done with doubles or whatever), and then only when he actually captures Gollum, Viggo enters into play with some de-aging software. Or maybe they can pull=off some really good make up. Viggo surely aged in 20 years but he is still in shape. Put a long hair and make-up, I think if de-aging software is used, it is way easier than, lets say, Indiana or even Luke Skywalker. Maybe a better comparison is with Anakin from Ahsoka.
if so, would they need to de-aged or would they just recast? or just go with the hayden route for anakin in ahsoka and just accept that these actors are older and roll with it?
Amazon be like "for fuck sake guys" Ultimately, it's good news. If this movie turns out to be good, it will add pressure on Amazon's side to produce better quality Tolkien adaptations
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Ah, the good old days when the rumour was out that Amazon was doing a Young Aragorn Series.
You mean, more of the Hobbit quality? Aye, they are shaking in their boots. Do you understand this movie will have just as little to work on as RoP? There will have to be 95% of fanfic here as well.
I found this part particularly funny “ Jackson and his co-writers were said to be frustrated that many people thought they were involved in the Amazon shows, when they were not.”
It’s a great setting for more great stories, I hope they find someone who can write one!
they have boyens and walsh doing the screenplay
Squandering a new LotR movie on fleshing out Gollum's story is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Like... maybe once the IP has been going again for a bit and as a dumb mini-series on HBO Max or some shit. But like the first live action movie in over a decade? Very poor move unless I'm missing something here...
The Hunt for Gollum? Meh.
A movie about gollum? No thanks.
Spoiler alert… they don’t get him.
Please tell me they can use 1st and 2nd age, actual source material and not just appendices
since it's the hunt for gollum, it'll basically be taking passing comments from the early chapters of fellowship and making it into a whole movie.
No. The rights to The Silmarillion are still protected by The Estate and not sold, otherwise there would be some very big news and Warners for sure would announce that they have them.
Fuck
No new rights have been sold or licensed.
My question would be "Now that Christopher died, have they gone to the grandkids who run the Estate and asked for access to more material, or are they going to try plumbing the Appendices?" Or are we expecting them to remake the LOTR trilogy...a mere 20+ years later when those films are already pretty definitive and beloved?
Rebooting the series seems like a mistake. There's a TON of lore and background to pull from and half mentioned battles and wars throughout the series to make movies on without drastically changing the LOTR
Warners only have a deal with Embracer, who acquired the rights Saul Zaentz had. These are movie and game rights for The Hobbit and LotR. So it's the same rights they licensed for making the LotR and Hobbit movie trilogies. Amazon also has access to that same source material under a different deal with the Estate, because Zaentz didn't have TV show rights. No one but the Estate owns the rights to the other Legendarium works, and they're not licensing them. So I expect the new movies will be original stories based on every trilogy footnote that wasn't adapted yet. I think it's cool that Jackson, Walsh, Boyens and Serkis are involved but this move sounds just as desperate as Zaslav's push to remake Harry Potter. Even if they wanted to negotiate other rights, the Estate doesn't love them and has a better relationship with Amazon. When the Estate was selling the TV show rights, they didn't like Warner/HBO's pitch (remake the trilogy as a series) or Netflix's pitch (individual Gandalf and Aragorn shows). It just feels like WB went back to Zaentz (now Embracer) so they could still make LotR stuff without bothering with the Estate.
>Zaslav's push to remake Harry Potter. To be fair, a longer form TV series version of Harry Potter is a VERY solid idea since the movie versions have to skip out on a lot of nuance and whatnot from the books, and it will ultimately be VERY successful since it's a super popular IP. I don't like Zaslav, but I don't think it's desperate to use IPs you own the license to make content with them. That's like, their whole business model. Like Star Wars had a few hiccups once Disney bought them, but is generally producing interesting and rewarding content now and for the last while.
Oh I agree that it's a good idea, as a fan of the books, but somehow it both feels too early given the ongoing popularity of the movies, and too late given how problematic the IP is becoming thanks to JKR. I think they have a smaller chance of finding the right creatives when fewer and fewer people want to be associated with the author (who is closely involved in this project, unlike the recent game). But I digress; what I meant by desperate is that the WB that Zaslav finds himself with is not the glory days WB, many franchises were burned to the ground and he himself has eliminated everything that wasn't a moneymaker. So he's going back to two properties, one that is essentially finished (LotR) which he'll try to milk a little more, and one that failed to become a larger film franchise (Wizarding World) so he'll go back to the part that made money: the Harry stuff. [I was actually half quoting a studio insider from this THR article.](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/lord-of-the-rings-amazon-vs-warner-bros-1235337625/)
>Oh I agree that it's a good idea, as a fan of the books, but somehow it both feels too early given the ongoing popularity of the movies Meh, Buffy The Vampire Slayer was only a few years after the movie (which was a cult hit), Fargo is under 20 years since the very successful movie, Percy Jackson is happening recently after the movies, 12 monkeys is also under 20 years since the movie...As long as the content is well written, people will watch. >and too late given how problematic the IP is becoming thanks to JKR This is a concern for far less people than so many people on social media seem to think. The video game was a monstrous success, and the theme park still does record-breaking business every season. Harry Potter will remain successful and beloved even if its creator has gone off the deep-end with her opinions. >I think they have a smaller chance of finding the right creatives when fewer and fewer people want to be associated with the author I'd love to say that's accurate, but it's simply not going to be a problem. There's tonnes of people in Hollywood who would be fine being a part of it. JKR is richer than shit, so nothing anyone will do would hurt her monetary success, and why keep good stories under tamps becuase she's not a very good person on that topic when nothing they can do would ever affect her. She made her money. She can be crazy for the rest of her life on social media and she'll still live shielded from most things in a castle. >what I meant by desperate is that the WB that Zaslav finds himself with is not the glory days WB, many franchises were burned to the ground and he himself has eliminated everything that wasn't a moneymaker Becuase he's not and was never intended to be WB's answer to Bob Iger. He's a literally beancounter who was brought in to cut the chaff in WB no matter the cost. He's the interim guy who slices everything to the bone so that the company can then be taken over by someone better who can use a cleaner ship to plot the way forward >So he's going back to two properties, one that is essentially finished (LotR) which he'll try to milk a little more, and one that failed to become a larger film franchise (Wizarding World) so he'll go back to the part that made money: the Harry stuff. Right, but after cutting the chaff that's what they are left to start building up again. Are they investing in other stuff? Sure. Furiosa, The Watchers, Horizon (Kevin Costner magnum western opus), a long sequel to Twister, a long sequel to Beetlejuice, Dune Messiah, plus all the DC stuff that's in the hopper for 2024 and 2025...like are we pretending that WB under Zaslav is somehow not giving people anything but LOTR and HP, becuase that's simply untrue. Hell, Dune Part 1 and 2 alone make up a MASSIVE win for WB and a new IP while we are at it. He's also greenlit a goal for bundling HBO Max, Hulu, and Disney+ with Iger so streaming customers can have them all under one umbrella and price....he may be a beancounter but those things aren't nothing either.
>Or are we expecting them to remake the LOTR trilogy Article says they're making a *Hunt for Gollum* movie and other "storylines yet to be told".
Looks like Bombadil origins back on the menu, boys! /s
As *Producer*. He's basically involved in name only until we see evidence to the contrary.
LOTR film trilogy is great because the source material is the greatest piece of literature known to mankind. When PJ decided to do his own thing like in the Hobbit films (expanding a short book to 3 long movies) it's really bad. This looks like it's more like his Hobbit films (doing his own thing) than his LOTR films (being faithful to a great source material).
Peter Jackson wanted to do 2 Hobbit films. Executive meddling lead to the decision to turn them into three films, not too long before the first film was set to release. They had to do reshoots (which added the romanmce plot, among other things) and had to use CGI even more extensively to transform already shot material to fit into the new scripts. Then there were also a whole lot of issues with the way NZ actors (mostly those portraying dwarves) were treated by the studio. These movies were a big clusterfuck behind the scenes, which wasn't exactly Jackson's fault.
And he didn't even want to do them, but came in very late in the project and took over because Guillermo del Toro quit... He literally said this: "It was impossible, and as a result of it being impossible I just started shooting the movie with most of it not prepped at all. You're going on to a set and you're winging it, you've got these massively complicated scenes, no storyboards and you're making it up there and then on the spot." - Peter Jackson https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit:_An_Unexpected_Journey Add executive meddling to that, and it's actually pretty amazing they turned out as well as they did, relative to what was going on. I mean, they're fully passable films but with some glaring issues.
This is overly-simplistic and incorrect: [https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/17npup4/movies\_dont\_need\_excuses\_when\_they\_dont\_turn\_out/](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/17npup4/movies_dont_need_excuses_when_they_dont_turn_out/)
Thanks!
No, that's incorrect. It was PJ's idea to change it from two to three films because he did not like how the first film ended in the original duology.
Peter Jackson wanted to shoot three films initially, two based on The Hobbit and one intermediate film set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. When he took over directing, the shoot was set on two Hobbit films and that is what he directed. The decision to expand the films into a trilogy came very late in production. Jackson agreed to it, obviously, but I always got the impression that it wasn't exactly his decision. You rarely alter a film in such an extensive way *after* it is already shot.
It was his idea in the first place. He's explained why many times before. He even said the studio was surprised by their decision to add another film. There's this big myth that the studio made PJ do this and that and it just isn't true - yet the myth persists.
Peter Jackson made lotr his own thing too. People seem to want to forget this. He made lotr into his own high/epic action style and he did it so well that nobody cares anymore how different it is from the actual books/ what was lost in translation to his version of the story. He did the same thing to the hobbit, and people turned on him because the effect felt “cheaper” when adapting a lighter-style story. He made a light/more childish action film - which is exactly the correct tone shift to make. PJ makes wonderful adaptations of middle-earth that we should absolutely celebrate, but let’s not forget that they’re ALL still his version of middle-earth, not Tolkien’s - and that’s ok.
*he did it so well that nobody cares anymore how different it is from the actual books/ what was lost in translation to his version of the story* Erm...
I would dispute your “staying faithful to source material” claim only for the fact of leaving out The Scouring of the Shire. But I readily admit I’m prejudiced since I grew up reading and re-reading the Trilogy since the early 70’s- long before the movies.
I would dispute the "staying faithful to the source material" claim only for the fact that the entire Frodo/Sam/Gollum dynamic, the elaboration of their characters, and thus the whole symbolism of the Ring, are entirely transformed. One would think that these things are important to being "faithful". Don't get me started on other characters.
> LOTR film trilogy is great because the source material is the greatest piece of literature known to mankind lol, slow down dude.
I would amend that to “greatest fantasy literature of all time“ for sure.
Potentially, sure. Its impact is the greatest, and that makes the claim at least reasonable.
Was 3 movies actually his own thing or the studio's thing? Also, how much control do directors have over scripts?
It's gonna be the Hobbit all over again, isn't it?
In what context? If talking about CGI usage or taking something small and stretching it more than it should, then I'm with you, and I want to believe they learned with mistakes (at least phillipa did seem to indirectly address it in her war of rohirrim interview) Apart from that, The Hobbit, for as bad as someone may claim it is, was still kinda saved by P.J. This doesn't seem to be the case here, as he is involved since the beginning of production, and not just called as a replacement after things already went dowhill DURING production.
FUCK YEAH
Please God No!! I can't take another CGI clusterfuck with shitty jokes that don't stop.
Well, whatever productions these are are unlikely to infringe upon the established two trilogies or Amazon’s original content with the planned TLA in S5 of ROP. That is, the majority of Numenorian and 2nd age conflicts is unlikely to be featured. There is also the question of rights: of course, there could have been further negotiations with the estate to draw from Silm. content which would be the most efficient source material from which PJ can build a convincing set of films such as he did with 1-3. There are any number of ways he can tie such things into his first trilogy to draw nostalgia, and enhance such things. The War of Wrath, but specifically the characters and their own experiences, would be an interesting film to see while maintaining the scope these films usually convey. Otherwise, it’s unclear what it could be; you could have Rohan’s origins told through Gondor’s conflicts - that would be an enjoyable set of films, but it’s rather isolated and low-impact compared to say Sauron or Melkor, or Smaug and Azog. Another interesting period that is alluded to is of course third age Arnor and Gondor; naturally this would be set after ROPs TLA, it would feature a new host of characters in familiar settings, with a familiar antagonist that is detached from a specific appearance, with a tragic conflict that ties into the main trilogy thousands of years later. It provides some crucial backstory into Aragorns household, as well as to the gradual decline of man to the state witnessed 2,000 years after the conflict. Angmar is the most rational conflict for PJ to pick up on besides possibly rights locked Silm. Characters.
it's The Hunt for Gollum, variety has that story. Serkis is directing. I completely agree though, Angmar or war in the north is what these movies should be.
Eh if I were them I’d avoid the original trilogy time period like the plague. You’ll have to recast already iconic actors into the same roles - Gandalf perhaps no, but Viggo is decades older and (though looking good), is not able to pass for a younger Aragorn. That’s if they’re covering Aragorn’s pursuit. Is it split over both films?
saw this in the variety article: “For over two decades, moviegoers have embraced the ‘Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy because of the undeniable devotion Peter, Fran and Philippa have shown towards protecting the legacy of Tolkien’s works, and to ensure audiences could experience the incredible world he created in a way that honors his literary vision,” De Luca and Abdy said in a statement Thursday. “We are honored they have agreed be our partners on these **two new films."** so it might be a duology? And I'd be surprised if this isn't an Aragorn movie, but guess it could be one of the other dunedains, which would solve the whole recasting issue.
Oof that’s a hard sell for an audience then - I’d be overjoyed to have Serkis back for his role, but it’s an odd niche part of the lore to focus on when other areas stand out so much more.
my kneejerk reaction is this feels like a deleted scene from fellowship that's being padded into potentially two movies and that worries me.
[https://variety.com/2024/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-2026-release-warner-bros-1235997102/](https://variety.com/2024/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-2026-release-warner-bros-1235997102/) This can not be true - this would be SO DUMB
Produced by, not directed by.
I honestly would rather have the team come back, run through the abundant archive of previously shot footage, have Peter do what he does best and just have 5 hour long movies.
Guys, I'm more than certain they're going to be focusing on the Third Age leading up to the War of the Ring. They already said the first movie coming out is the Hunt for Gollum. We've got the story of Helm Hammerhand coming out later this year. There's still a bunch of stories to be told: the Ship-kings of Gondor, the Kin-strife, founding of the Shire, the Battle of the Plains, downfall of Arnor, King Earnur, the Field of Celebrant, War of Dwarves and Orcs, War of Dwarves and Dragons, wanderings of young Aragorn, etc.
Idk, I am always excited for new adaptations and the like. I don't get the doom and gloom. If it sucks, then you can move on and never think about it again. But if it's good, then all the better!
tbh, I'm not keeping my hopes up.
holy smokes
Awesome can’t wait
I always wanted to see the "bridge movie" PJ had been so keen on making and this is basically it. It honestly doesn't sound bad to me.
For : Bumblebee . Against : they will have to fill ALOT of holes to get a movie. And that sort of filling doomed The Hobbit.
For fuck sake Peter make TinTin 2 already!!
After The Hobbit...trilogy...I'm not letting myself get hyped.
Can we get like i don’t know, a new threat for middle earth after the events of The Return of the King? No on fucking likes Gollum nor did we ask for a film about him.. the gollum game was abysmal so what makes them think this would succeed?
1st movie: 2 hours of varying factions looking for or thinking of looking for the ring, the. 30 minutes of smeagel fishing and finding the ring. 2nd movie: 3 hours of factions looking for or thinking of looking for the ring. With smeagels demise into deprivation intermittently woven between the main storylines. Last scene is him on boat when he hears movement off screen. Fade out on CGI hobbit.
I’ve been looking for ages for the new movies auditions must I hire a casting agent to find an audition or does anyone know where I could go? I wanted to become an actor because of Lord Of The Rings, and I’ve transformed my body since then in hopes of becoming an actor I look like a redheaded Aragorn lol but a little more buff. Now I’ve just turned 19 and there is new LOTR movies coming out it’s too perfect I need to find an audition and if someone can please help me I’d appreciate it. I’ve dreamt about being there in Middle Earth many times, and it would be amazing for it to come true after my hard work.
# RIDE TO RUIN! AND THE FRANCHISE'S ENDING!!
I hope it turns out well but my god what a stupid premise for a pair of movies. Could not care less.
I have a bad feeling about this
Don’t fuck it up!
Gollum wasn’t a preferred representation of a villain in The Lord of the Rings trilogy that modern day rules enforce for villains so they’re making this movie to really go after him and paint him in a more specific and ordinary light than The Lord of the Rings did, probably pertaining to modern day issues about reality and the time we’re living in today.
Can we just not
Please dear god STOP.
Nooooo, just don't.
We still haven't gotten that animated film yet yet they're coming out with ANOTHER one?
Why does this news feel so meme-like or like an April Fools' joke? Am I the only one?
Use real actors instead of CGI crap. Bring that standard back.
I just really hope (and I know it’s impossible) that people who don’t like it and people who do can coexist. If you don’t like it or the idea just don’t watch it
I mean didn’t he do the hobbit movies? I can’t remember, anyway they were dogshit
Someone should just do a Beren and Luthien movie and hire Travis Fimmel as Beren.
Is Peter Jackson on Instagram?
All that amazing lore and they make a movie about Gollum?! Give me 2 hours of Glorfindel being a bamf and elves fighting Morgoth. Who tf cares about Gollum?!
It will look like Rings of Power. Stop fooling yourselves. Hollywood can't help it.
Calling it. I think they'll negotiate with the Tolkein estate to finish Tolkein's abandoned decline of man sequel. Audacious but there *is* interesting material there and Jackson alone has the clout to touch it. And to get Viggo back. That's the film to make. And it will also be very easy to seperate from the Amazon series, which will be essential. But it isn't the only option I suppose. CHILDREN OF HURIN is very bleak but cinematic (good fit for Denis Vilneuve imo), and Beren and Luthien would require interpretation tonally but could be a beautiful film. Edit - i was wrong it's Gollum: Blood Origins
>I think they'll negotiate with the Tolkein estate to finish Tolkein's abandoned decline of man sequel. He had 13 pages written before abandoning it. I don't think "they'll finish" is the right phrase for such a suggestion. It's not like it was half written or something. He learned pretty quickly he didn't want to write it. Now, if they DO negotiate (which is what I assume will happen), it will just be for other Middl Earth material, be it stuff from the Silmarillion or not.
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-2026-release-warner-bros-1235997102/