Back in 2009, a fan project filmed the hunt for Gollum. This beautiful stinker comes from the films of Peter Jackson. Image source: Warner Bros.
Advertisement
A new Lord of the Rings film was announced last week. Andy Serkis, who played the devious Gollum in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy, wants to direct it.
Working title of the film: The Hunt for Gollum – The Hunt for Gollum. However, since 2009 there has been a fan film with the same name and basically the same plot. But, see for yourself:
13 million clicks to date
Link to YouTube content
To date, the almost 40-minute film has collected 13 million clicks on YouTube. But after the announcement of Andy Serkis' new film on May 9, 2024, the fan film was no longer available on YouTube for some time.
According to information from the magazine Variety Warner Bros. had the video blocked because the film company felt that copyright had been violated. The film has been online again in its entirety since May 10th.
However, the current version is preceded by a disclaimer. In this, the makers of the fan film point out that that their work was created only for private purposes and has no commercial purpose.
On Reddit one of those involved speaks up:
We had permission from Saul Zaentz to make the film as long as we didn't make a profit from it. So no rights were violated. Due to the great outrage from fans, the film is back online. This is humbling for all of us who made The Hunt for Gollum and is pretty amazing. It was a crazy day that none of us saw coming. Thank you for your energy to make things right.
The mentioned Saul Zaentz (1921-2014) was an American film producer who bought the rights to the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings books from the film studio United Artists in the 1970s.
Based on these licenses, both Ralph Bakshi's animated film from 1978 and Peter Jackson's film adaptations in the early 2000s were created.
By the way, Peter Jackson is also back in the newly announced film. The director of both trilogies takes on the role of producer. Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the two screenwriters and producers of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, are also back on board.
We have put the article about what we already know about the new film in the link box. Also an article on the first details about Rings of Power. The Amazon Prime series about the prehistory of the Lord of the Rings starts its second season in August 2024.