Youtube screenshot Early fans have clearly not forgotten this modest fan film which nevertheless hid many qualities.
Youtube Screenshot
Early fans have clearly not forgotten this modest fan film which nevertheless hid many qualities.
CINEMA – Middle-earth is renewed on the big screen… well, almost. While the second season of Rings of Power is still awaited, first information on a new film adapted from the writings of JRR Tolkien was announced this Thursday, May 9. But this pleasant announcement at first glance led to very bad news for early fans of the Lord of the Rings : the (short-lived) deletion of a 2009 fan film adapting more or less the same story.
This new film, titled in English The Hunt for Gollum (which can be translated as The Hunt for Gollum by us), should be screened in cinemas in 2026. A more or less expected announcement, which quickly reassured fans of this universe since Variety assures that the father of cinematographic adaptations of the work, director Peter Jackson, will be there.
« Involved at every step of the process », Peter Jackson and his faithful partners in the saga (Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens) will not, however, be directing this new film. This was entrusted to the iconic interpreter of Gollum in the cinema, the British actor and director Andy Serkis, as specified in a press release from Warner Bros.
As for the story, it should focus on intrigues that have not yet been told in cinema, according to producer and CEO of the American studio David Zaslav. But connoisseurs of Middle-earth know that this title refers to the quest led by Aragorn and Gandalf after the events of Hobbit but before those of Lord of the Rings. A hunt led by the character played in the cinema by Viggo Mortensen to find the dark creature who knows too much about the One Ring made by Sauron.
A striking fan film
Does this story mean anything to you? If this is the case, nothing could be more normal since a film on this subject already exists. Or more precisely a “ fan movie » existed. Unveiled in 2009, this project, developed outside the official framework of Peter Jackson’s saga for the cinema, met with significant success when it was released. Helped by its free distribution on the internet, The Hunt for Gollum even found a place at the London International Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Festival, better known as SCI-FI-LONDON.
By discovering the title of this new film (planned since February 2023 by Warner Bros. in a broader project of “ several films » about Tolkien’s universe), early fans couldn’t help but think back to this rather faithful adaptation, available for over 15 years on Youtube.
“We so quickly forgot the fan film The Hunt for Gollumreleased in 2009 »
” Fortunately The Hunt for Gollum is not already the title of a 38-minute fan film released in 2009, or of an expansion of the card game The Lord of the Rings ! »
But some took a dim view of this desire to once again adapt this story, present in the Appendices and Annexes to The Lord of the Ringsseeing it only as an unscrupulous recycling on the part of the studio to perpetuate this very lucrative franchise in the cinema.
“Fans already made a fan film with the exact same title back in 2009, in case you were wondering if Warner Bros. was out of ideas », regrets for example this Internet user. And less than 24 hours after the announcement of the new film produced by Warner Bros, it’s difficult to contradict these angry fans.
“Our film is already back”
As pointed out IGN and the author of the fan-film on surprise » this Friday, May 10, Warner Bros filed a copyright action against its 2009 project in order to have it removed from Youtube. And this, even though it was available free of charge and in its entirety on the video platform for more than 15 years, accumulating more than 13 million views since it was put online.
Yet, The Hunt for Gollum had been authorized at the time by the rights holders of the British novelist, on the condition of not generating profits on the project, as its director Chris Bouchard explained in 2009 at the BBC. This Friday, a simple click on the Youtube video left the words: “ Video not available. This video includes content from Warner Bros. Entertainment, which blocked it for copyright reasons ».
Chris Bouchard finally spoke on X to announce the return of the film on the video platform after “ an interesting day to say the least “. He also plays the appeasement card with the century-old studio by thanking it for its “ elegance “, his film being only a ” non-profit fan tribute ».
An ultimately happy epilogue for this project of around forty minutes which had a visual ambition close to Peter Jackson’s first trilogy, despite a ridiculous budget but largely financed by fans of the Lord of the Rings themselves.
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