The Hunt for Gollum

[RoyGBiv]

For a fan-made film, the production values on this look remarkable.



The movie will be released for free on the Internet on May 3, 2009.

www.thehuntforgollum.com

The site for the movie is very lagged, btw. It's been Slashdotted.

Trailer 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnMHgwG9aAo

Trailer 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm-GNKsFeIs

[deucemagnet]

1. Did they borrow footage from the original films?

It looks great!

[RoyGBiv]

2. Nope ...

It's basically a home movie and will certainly pale in comparison to the feature films. But, they did what a lot of "fan film" producers fail to do. They put a maximum amount of effort into editing. I think the film of this thing was done sometime last year, and they've been editing every since.

The director, who also plays Strider, is an indie filmmaker who has done other projects, so he knew what he was doing. He had access to CGI facilities and apparently someone who could produce a decent score.

I'm quite excited. The "hunt for gollum" has long been a favorite "what if" part of the Tolkien universe, those missing years between Bilbo's hundred and eleventh birthday and Frodo's setting out on the quest.

OnEdit: "director" not "producer"

[Withywindle]

3. That's a really cool idea.

I think the old man himself would have liked the very idea of fan films (if not necessarily each individual product).

"Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic to the level of romantic fairy-story--the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths--which I could dedicate simply: to England; to my country. ...I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd." --JRRT

Not absurd at all. A vast, enduring mythology with plenty of scope for other artists in various media to make their own interpretations over the decades and, maybe, centuries - that is exactly what he did achieve.

[RoyGBiv]

6. I agree ...

His whole *point* was to create a mythology, not a single-vision story that had no room for continuation or expansion. You could pick almost any chapter from the three Rings books and find an unexplored story, especially in the RotK. There's so much there.

I've never understood why more hasn't been done with that universe other than the multitude of adaptations. I suppose one could sort of connect the entire fantasy genre to Tolkien and certainly a large part of the D&D universe and fiction that came from it. I wonder, though, why there's not more placed specifically in Middle Earth.

Ponder, ponder ...

[RoyGBiv]

4. Morning kick

[NewJeffCT]

5. looks good - thanks for the link

I'll definitely seek it out when it's online.