Given the massive success of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkein’s epic book series, it’s a little surprising that there aren’t more LOTR-related fan films out there. Now it looks like you’ll be able to check out what might be a pretty cool dramatic flick by the end of the year: The Hunt for Gollum.
The filmmakers are aiming to finish the 30-minute film by December, 2008, and have already completed scenes featuring an Orc army, while segments featuring the immortal Elves of Middle Earth were recently shot in Hampstead Heath Pergola in London.
The brainchild of writer/director Chris Bouchard, the script is adapted from the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The prequel will follow events leading up to The Fellowship of the Ring, focusing in on the Heir of Isildur—the “greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth”—as he sets out to find Gollum in order to learn the truth about the Ring.
Hasn’t the dearth of LOTR fan films been because New Line/Saul Zaentz/somebody or other has vowed to come down like the Hammer of Balin on anyone who dares to infringe on the property? That’s why we had stuff like Ancanar — it’s LOTR, but not really.
Reading up on Ancanar (which I’d never heard of before), sounds like they were a ‘for profit’ effort, which must have made their road a lot more difficult. As it stands, there’s little in mainstream fantasy that doesn’t owe some kind of debt to Tolkein—I mean, look at the Shanara books—so his estate could have a field day if it wanted to get its litigation on.
Just learned about this one myself. Looks really good. This and Born of Hope both look really promising.