Warner Bros. is making new Lord of the Rings live-action films, and the movie studio is bringing again Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens to make them. The primary of those tasks is a movie about Gollum in improvement below the working title The Hunt for Gollum, with Andy Serkis directing. Jackson not too long ago spoke to Deadline about why he wished to start with a film about Gollum and offered some clues about what to anticipate.
He stated he is all the time been fascinated by Gollum/Smeagol due to what the character represents.
“Gollum displays the worst of human nature, while his Smeagol aspect is, arguably, fairly sympathetic,” Jackson stated. “I feel he connects with readers and movie audiences alike, as a result of there’s somewhat little bit of each of them in all of us.”
Jackson went on to say that The Hunt for Gollum’s story will dig extra into Gollum’s backstory and “delve into these elements of his journey we did not have time to cowl within the earlier movies.”
Given the movie’s working title, many count on the story to give attention to the time frame when Gandalf despatched Aragorn on a journey to seek out Gollum earlier than Sauron’s forces might. Nonetheless, Jackson would not be drawn into discussing additional specifics on the story or what different characters could seem.
“It is too quickly to know who will cross his path, however suffice to say we are going to take our lead from Professor Tolkien,” he stated.
Boyens, for her half, stated the unique Lord of the Rings trilogy “could not go as deeply” because the workforce wished to for Gollum, and the brand new film is a chance to fill within the gaps.
As viewers absolutely recall, Return of the King begins with a sequence that exhibits how Smeagol grew to become Gollum, and this was a darkish and upsetting sequence the place Smeagol murders his cousin and good friend.
“Gollum’s life span takes place in such an attention-grabbing interval of Center-earth. When the query was first requested, this was the primary story we considered,” Boyens stated. “As a result of I can inform you, and folks won’t imagine this, however we had zero expectations of going again to this. It wasn’t one thing we had been trying to do, significantly. So the when the query was requested, it was, ‘What would draw you again?'”
Andy Serkis, who performed Gollum within the authentic collection and was a second unit director on The Hobbit, is directing The Hunt for Gollum. Boyens stated Serkis is the right particular person to direct the movie.
“There’s no one else you possibly can consider who is aware of what goes into that character and we all know what he brings to it and brings to the entire world of Center-earth. Andy [is] going to have a extremely attention-grabbing take. It may be his personal take, as a result of what we do not need this movie to be is simply the fourth movie within the trilogy,” she stated. “This movie has to work in its personal manner. And that is our job. That is what we’re going to have to have the ability to do. I do know there’s loads of folks on the market who can be like, ‘Oh no, why are they doing this? Why are they going again in?’ Effectively, that is our job. Our job goes to must be to show why we predict that it is a good suggestion.”
As for Serkis, he informed Deadline he was “completely floored” to be requested to return to Center-earth to direct The Hunt for Gollum. “They’re probably the most hardworking folks on the planet, and their seek for excellence by no means ends, and now I get to assist attain that bar once more,” he stated. “It was Philippa who first referred to as me truly and stated, ‘Look, that is what we’re considering.’ And I used to be simply flushed with a kind of, ‘Oh my God, I am going again in there.’ Yeah, it was a terrific second.”
He went on to say he is excited to research Gollum “on a deeper degree” to disclose to viewers who he actually is. Serkis, too, would not touch upon if different widespread Lord of the Rings characters will seem in The Hunt for Gollum. He stated, “I do not wish to commit something proper now. I imply, as a result of it is so uncooked and so uncooked and wriggling, and we’re simply actually having very early state script discussions and concepts of precisely the place and the way we’ll drop anchor with the character and his journey and the way he’s or comes into contact with different characters, and the characters that we all know and do not know.”
Go to Deadline to learn the total interview. The Hunt for Gollum, or no matter closing title is assigned to the movie, is penciled in for launch in 2026.