Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav spoke about the new movie “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” during the financial report.
Initially, he described the franchise as “one of the major breakthroughs” for Warner Bros. along with Harry Potter, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, and later said that he had already seen the script for the new Gollum movie and called it “great.”
“We have a great script for The Lord of the Rings with Peter Jackson, and we are moving forward with it. We will provide more details later.”
Filming will begin in early to mid-2026, while the release is tentatively scheduled for December 17, 2027. It is known that Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the Jackson trilogies, will reprise his role and also direct.
“I’m incredibly excited to be back working with my friends and family in New Zealand to create something that I think will be unexpected, but also seamlessly fits into the mythology and atmosphere of the trilogy. The feel of this project I think will be close to the original, while at the same time we will dive deeper into the character that was once known as Smeagol, but is mostly known as Gollum.” — said formerly Serkis.
The plot of The Hunt for Gollum will be based on a side story that takes place off-screen during the early part of The Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf and Aragorn track down the character of Serkis to find out what he knows about Sauron’s return. It is only the first of two new feature films for the Lord of the Rings universe (which story will be touched upon in the second one is unknown).
Will the other actresses of The Lord of the Rings join?
Rumors abound, and the stars themselves are only adding fuel to the fire. Ian McKellen, 86, and Viggo Mortensen, 66, said they were “open to suggestions,” while the first one allegedly already accepted it.
“To be honest, it depends entirely on Viggo.” — said Philippa Boyens, the film’s former screenwriter. “We are at a very early stage of cooperation. I talked to Viggo, Andy and Peter talked to him. We all talked to each other. To be honest, I can’t imagine anyone else playing Aragorn, but it will be completely and totally up to Viggo.”
Meanwhile, Orlando Bloom, 44, suggested that AI is essential for the return of Legolas and other characters. In fact, Andy Serkis does not shy away from technology, so anything is possible.
In parallel, Amazon continues to build its own TV version of Tolkien’s story and has started production of the third season of the Rings of Power series. The show will make a “huge” leap in time, and the events will unfold in the midst of the war between the elves and Sauron, when the Dark Lord is trying to create the One Ring, which will give him an advantage and a chance to conquer all of Middle Earth. Earlier, Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things) joined the cast, who is likely to play the role of the Dark Lord, will play “Galadriel’s new love”.
Source: IGN
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