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Warner Bros. to release new ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ in 2026, Peter Jackson to produce and Andy Serkis to direct
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- Title
- Warner Bros. to Release First New 'Lord of the Rings' in 2026, Currently in Early Script Development
- Authors
- Jennifer Maas
- Published
- May 9 2024
Wow, the movies just made the same mistake that the games just made! We got a Gollum spinoff game, and it was... gestures at how critically panned it was, and how the studio shut down ...not good.
Normally I say "there's no bad premises, only bad executions", but Gollum just isn't a good place to start for LotR spinoffs. He's a pretty boring and grounded character, and LotR and The Hobbit really gave us all of him we needed to see. Gollum's big claim to fame is how good the CGI for him was and that Andy Serkis gave a great performance, not that the character is super interesting. The only reason to make a movie about him is that Serkis is involved. You could say "money!" but I bet a lot of other LotR movie premises would get more butts in seats than this.
It makes way more sense to focus on a cooler character, or to adapt a larger story arc using the appendices. For solo movies, there's a lot of other LotR characters, Strider or Legolas for example, that are much better ideas. The Amazon show, for all its faults, has a decent premise: to show the second age in live action for the first time. The execution of the show was pretty bad, but the premise is solid, and there was a certain novelty to seeing stuff like Numenor on screen.
I'm not sure I follow the logic here.
Gollum wasn't bad because it was about Gollum, it was bad because the game itself was technically incompetent and poorly designed.
That is true, but I really think the premise is pretty hard to make a decent story out of. And no matter how good of a story you do make, you could've made something a lot more successful a lot easier if you just used a different character. Strider is a badass, so you could make an action game about him easily. Hobbits are wholesome and cozy, you can make a farming sim about The Shire very easily. Gollum is a pretty depressing character who lives in a cave doing nothing for 500 years, so he doesn't lend himself to main character status very well. The one good idea I can think of would be a horror game, but I think there's a lot of other ideas for other characters that would have broader appeal.
Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game just now popped up in my Steam queue, Coming Soon. You should've jumped on that idea faster.
What's funny is someone showed me the trailer for that game right after I made that comment.
I'm in the minority (silent majority?) that really likes Rings of Power, but I think everyone can agree on how incredible it looked! And that Galadriel really displays girlpower like nothing else since maybe Wonder Woman in 2017
I don't think acting like an ignorant teenager with anger issues, and despite being thousands of years old, is what I'd call girlpower. She's a strong fighter, yes, but a weak character.
I obviously disagree with that interpretation but that's ok, we like what we like!
No, we have to fight until tears!
.
.
.
I'm already crying, you win.
I don't hate the show, I just think it could've been much better. I recognize a lot of things it did badly, but there were a lot of aspects that I did really enjoy. It looked excellent as you said, but then there were moments like someone suggesting the concept of metal alloys to a master blacksmith.
Is that a subtle dig at Amazon's treatment of ROP?
Anyways, I'd initially thought the hunt for Gollum would be after the events of the Hobbit, with Strider and Gandalf seeking him out before Sauron's agents ultimately find him. Dramatic tension similar to the sense of urgency of hobbits fleeing the Shire with the Ring.
200 years before the events of the Hobbit, Gollum would be hiding under the Misty Mountains, staying put in his cave, eating blind fish and strangling wayward scrawny goblins. That's not much to work with.
I don't think they can afford to throw stones after the Hobbit movies. It's probably just a way to say "it's going to be good, trust us".
There's already a Hunt for Gollum fan film set before (during?) LotR:
https://youtu.be/uZWuxEwqYzM?si=NiVRhRDV3u6OVpP6
I love Andy Serkis as an actor, but he doesn't exactly have the best track record as a Director. Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and Venom: Let There Be Carnage both really sucked. Perhaps with better material he can do better, but I'm not so sure a Gollum movie would actually provide better material for him to work with. :/
He also has Breathe with Andrew Garfield which released in 2017. I never saw it but it also got lukewarm reception.
All you need to know: it says Middle Earth Enterprises, the holding company started by Saul Zaentz after he bought the film and merchandising rights from Tolkien, not the Tolkien Estate. They have no rights to Tolkien materials outside of the text of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, so it's just Hollywood fan fiction.
Anything you want to make into a movie outside The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings would have to be fan fiction regardless. It's not like The Silmarillion has a plot in the traditional sense.
On the other hand, it's a fertile land for expansion. Just like every side character or remark where expanded on in the Star Wars universe, here you have actual material that would feel a bit more justified (imagine Beren and Luthien ! The Fall of Gondolin !) than wondering what happened to the guy who greeted Luke Skywalker in Jabba's palace Return of the Jedi.
That said, given the state of media companies right now I'm not sure I'd want to see that.
shame the burned the R5-D4 origin story in Mando. I was looking forward to that as a full trilogy.
WB announcing their next tax write-off I see
My only two wishes are dwarves as the noble proud people they're supposed to be instead of comedic relief, and more Beorn, Grimbeorn, and their kin but I'm not sure if the timelines line up.