The Hunt for Gollum: Jackson & Serkis return

[Techwright]

Summary:  Warner Brothers, now owners of the rights to Middle Earth stories (though not The Silmarillion) have announced that Andy Serkis, Peter Jackson, Phillipa Boyens, and Fran Walsh are returning to Middle Earth to produce a new film:  The Hunt for Gollum.  Weta has been mentioned, so perhaps their props and art departments will be involved. It is speculated that the film may release December 2026, the 25th anniversary of The Return of the King. 

 

This presumably is a film expanding on Tolkien's writings talking about a massive hunt by Aragorn and the Rangers (should be a band name), and Gandalf at times, to track the movements of Gollum.  If you want a summary of that hunt, and the events that occurred during it, see the second video "the complete travels of Aragorn", which I've set to 12:39, the start of the events.  It's discussion will end at 15:24.

 

Aragorn's hunt for Gollum actually takes place during the early events of The Fellowship of the Ring.  The movie compresses the timeline, but in the book there are many years between Bilbo's disappearance at his 111 birthday party, and Gandalf's return to the Shire to test the Ring in fire.  Frodo in the book is actually in his mid-50s when setting out for Rivendell.  It will be interesting to see if this movie aligns with the timeline of the books and appendices, or if it will try to align with Jackson's previous movies, despite those being made by New Line Cinema, rather than Warner Brothers.

 

From the book path for Aragorn during this period, there are strong hints about the characters that might appear in this new film.  Lothlorian, the land of Galadriel and Celeborne, the Realm of the Woodland elves (and therefore Legolas and his dad Thranduil), Rivendell (suggesting Arwen, her twin brothers, and her dad Elron), even Bree Town and the Prancing Pony Inn (suggesting innkeeper Barliman Butterbur) could appear in this film.  The path also crosses Beorn the skinchanger's territory, and while Beorn is, we believe, passed on by this time, his descendants, including his son Grimbeorn, another werebear, definitely occupy the area.

 

I am cautiously optimistic.  The problems that came with the Hobbit movie trilogy largely stemmed from demands of a New Line Cinema executive, and with the franchise now moving to Warner Brothers, Jackson may have more clout to keep the tale closer to Tolkien's intent.  Even so, Tolkien's writings will need to be greatly fleshed out to make a complete movie.  So long as the ridiculous demands of executives stay at bay, I've hopes for a decent film.

 

 

 

Edited May 16 by Techwright
additional material added

[Excraft]

Cautiously optimistic.  I'm loving that WB is giving Amazon a huge middle finger for their abysmal steaming pile "The Rings of Power".  I like that Jackson and co. are involved, but I do agree and share your concern about studio meddling in this one.  As I recall, and granted I could be wrong as I read it a while ago, the whole story about the hunt for Gollum was condensed to a paragraph or two in the Council of Elrond.  That seems like very little to stretch into a whole movie and you know the studio will want to make this a trilogy.

 

Will be kind of hard to tie into the LoTR trilogy too given the wildly different timeframes you mentioned.  Overall, looking forward to this. 

[Glacier Peak]

I don't know where this film could go with the character that isn't already well-explained and paid off in the LoTR trilogy and to some extent the Hobbit trilogy. I would watch it though if the music from the LoTR trilogy is there!

Edited May 17 by Glacier Peak

[Techwright]

23 hours ago, Excraft said:

 As I recall, and granted I could be wrong as I read it a while ago, the whole story about the hunt for Gollum was condensed to a paragraph or two in the Council of Elrond.  That seems like very little to stretch into a whole movie and you know the studio will want to make this a trilogy.

 

I suspect Peter Jackson would nix the idea of a trilogy.  Lessons learned from the Hobbit trilogy.  He might, however, agree to do a trio of movies on individual topics.  The lore is rich, even without the Silmarillion in WB's fold, and adaptations of something like The Children of Huron, the fall of Numinor, or the staggeringly huge conflicts of the First Age might appeal to Jackson.

 

I do believe you're correct about there being very little written in the LotR books.  However,  it was mentioned that there was more in the appendices, and Tolkien appendices are prodigious at times.  I've personally not read the appendices work(s) regarding this topic, so I'm not certain how much is there.  Even if it is a short story in size, that still leaves a lot of room for interpretation to fill in.  It's also important to note that Tolkien as he worked out Middle Earth often had conflicting viewpoints on material not in the published books, such as the origin of orcs/goblins.  As a result, we have written materials recording his considerations.  That too, leaves room for interpretation, and I'm unsure if the material regarding this topic fits in that category.

 

 

[Excraft]

On 5/17/2024 at 1:19 PM, Techwright said:

I suspect Peter Jackson would nix the idea of a trilogy.  Lessons learned from the Hobbit trilogy.  He might, however, agree to do a trio of movies on individual topics.  The lore is rich, even without the Silmarillion in WB's fold, and adaptations of something like The Children of Huron, the fall of Numinor, or the staggeringly huge conflicts of the First Age might appeal to Jackson.

 

I do believe you're correct about there being very little written in the LotR books.  However,  it was mentioned that there was more in the appendices, and Tolkien appendices are prodigious at times.  I've personally not read the appendices work(s) regarding this topic, so I'm not certain how much is there.  Even if it is a short story in size, that still leaves a lot of room for interpretation to fill in.  It's also important to note that Tolkien as he worked out Middle Earth often had conflicting viewpoints on material not in the published books, such as the origin of orcs/goblins.  As a result, we have written materials recording his considerations.  That too, leaves room for interpretation, and I'm unsure if the material regarding this topic fits in that category.

 

I would hope Jackson would not want to turn this into a trilogy either.  You could be right about the appendices.  I haven't read the appendices themselves in quite some time, so there very well could be more story in there to plumb.

 

Even if there is a lot of room to work within, I'm certainly happy that its Peter Jackson and his team doing the story rather than the absolutely abysmal hacks over at Amazon.