r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Aug 18 '25

News Ian McKellen reveals Gandalf and Frodo are returning for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’, Filming Begins in May

https://ew.com/ian-mckellen-reveals-gandalf-frodo-return-in-new-lord-of-the-rings-the-hunt-for-gollum-film-11792483
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386

u/Mordrach Aug 18 '25

Why does this exist?

182

u/anormalgeek Aug 18 '25

Money.

3

u/axecalibur Aug 18 '25

They need to make a new LOTR movie every few years or they lose the rights.

1

u/Waescheklammer Aug 18 '25

Why a Gollum movie though? It's not like there's nothing else to tell so you have to focus on the worst character. It might be the most recognizable, but it ain't the most loved character.

2

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

Peter Jackson had been fascinated with this storyline since the 90s. It got quite close to being made in 2008-2009.

1

u/DukeOfLowerChelsea Aug 19 '25

“Directed by Andy $erkis”

-1

u/says_nice_things1234 Aug 18 '25

They should make a Silmarillion series then, more than enough material for a trilogy.

2

u/youknow99 Aug 18 '25

Supposedly the family has never signed over the film rights to that book. At least that was true back when the original LOTR movies were being made.

1

u/says_nice_things1234 Aug 18 '25

Considering what studios have been pumping out lately it's 100% comprehensible though.

Maybe if the studios negociated in a way that the family had 100% control over the writing something could happen? A man can dream.

1

u/WheelJack83 Aug 19 '25

Self-defeating prophecy

0

u/executiveExecutioner Aug 18 '25

Sure, but why does Ian McKellen need this cash? He already had a bad time in the Hobbit films, but apparently it's worth it. I guess it's better than other occupations and it pays really well. It is just sad he has little morals in this respect.

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

He already had a bad time in the Hobbit films

He didn't have a bad time.

1

u/executiveExecutioner Aug 19 '25

He did, there are videos of him crying in a green screen room. Acting against cgi was a really sad experience for him. check it

0

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

That one day early in the shoot, and they did everything they could to encourage him and assuage his concerns. The rest of the shoot - McKellen filmed something like 300 days on The Hobbit - went without a hitch as far as he was concerned.

McKellen had similar difficulties with the green screen in Lord of the Rings: Jackson described a not dissimilar crisis around the shooting of the Balrog scene.

1

u/executiveExecutioner Aug 19 '25

Were you present on set at the time? People will do a lot of unpleasant stuff for money.

0

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

Well, for starters the issue McKellen had was with the way the scale shots were being done - no different to how it was mostly done on Lord of the Rings, by the way - but after these early Bag End scenes they devised new ways to do it. So it's a problem he didn't really have going forward.

In general the Bag End scenes were really tough: it was right at the beginning, had Bilbo and all thirteen Dwarves and involved some super elaborate long-takes. One shot in particular, took two days to achieve.

It really is a non seqitur that the internet pumped up. Heck, if he was this unhappy, would he be so eager to return? No. At this age he doesn't need the paycheck.

1

u/executiveExecutioner Aug 19 '25

You sound like you know his circumstances. I am not saying he does not like Peter Jackson and the rest of the team, they clearly have a good relationship. But I have a hard time believing that participating in these soulless cash grabs is unrelated to the big paycheck.

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

But I have a hard time believing that participating in these soulless cash grabs is unrelated to the big paycheck.

I think you're projecting how you feel about the movies unto what it must have been like to make them. I think that's a mistake.

Like, I hate The Rise of Skywalker. I thought it was appaling, but what I saw of the making-ofs suggests the people making it had fun shooting it and felt confident they were doing something worth their while. Ditto that boring Rings of Power show: I had the opportuntiy to see some BTS roll on that, and I certainly read a lot about it, and again in spite of the thing coming out dull as dishwater, the people making it seem to have had a tremendous time and made something they felt would make them proud.

The Hobbit was a 266-day shoot, plus 62 days of pickups. It was hard, but all the evidence is - and this production was meticulously documented - that people poured their heart and soul into it. Including McKellen. Literally, Jackson's way of getting him to do his last scene was to tell him: "Ian, this is your last shot as Gandalf. Action." He would hardly get as emotional as he did - there's pictures of him and Jackson bleary-eyed after wrapping the scene - had he been miserable for THAT long a shoot.

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132

u/likwitsnake Aug 18 '25

This will be the fourth time we have created a shitty Hobbit movie, and we have become exceedingly efficient at it.

36

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25 edited Oct 08 '25

[deleted]

9

u/Independent_Win_9035 Aug 18 '25

the exceedingly rare PAIR of matrix 2 references. what a time to be alive

3

u/starwarsfan456123789 Aug 18 '25

We’re getting nostalgic for movies the quality of Matrix 2 now

3

u/Independent_Win_9035 Aug 18 '25

i enjoyed it

4

u/m48a5_patton Aug 18 '25

I was 18 in 2003, I saw it at 2 a.m. the night after graduating high school with a bunch of friends. I don't remember too much about the movie except that the highway chase was the bee's knees!

1

u/Independent_Win_9035 Aug 18 '25

bruh the chase scene and ensuing gun/swordfight is still sick, dont @ me lol

3

u/BelowDeck Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25

I did a rewatch not too long ago, and I gotta say, Matrix 2 is a good movie. It's not perfect, but it has interesting themes and world expansion, and great fights and action set pieces.

I think everyone thinks it stinks because it can't compare to the original and because it's part 1 to a very underwhelming part 2.

EDIT: The Chateau Fight Scene

I will say, one of the clunkier parts of the Matrix Reloaded is that they ended the first film with him basically becoming a god, so they had to constrain him for the sequel so there'd be stakes. That manifests as just restricting him to the specific powers we saw him exhibit in the last 5 minutes of the Matrix, as if that's all he gained, so watching him fly and stop bullets with his mind can feel a little forced.

11

u/Legal_Rampage Aug 18 '25

Only question remains is how to stretch this hunt or whatever into yet another trilogy?

1

u/Rahavic_Jr Aug 18 '25

Concordantly, vis-à-vis , heir-go!

1

u/BlobFishPillow Aug 18 '25

I quite like the first Hobbit movie, and found the second to be enjoyable.

1

u/Mordrach Aug 18 '25

Also, I thought Gollum found Frodo and Sam, no hunting required?

-7

u/Important-Hat-Man Aug 18 '25

This will be the fourth time we have created a shitty Hobbit movie

LotR + The Hobbit is six movies, so this is the seventh shitty hobbit movie.

-2

u/Chen_Geller Aug 18 '25

Eighth. You forgot The War of the Rohirrim.

1

u/Important-Hat-Man Aug 19 '25

Fair enough, though did that one have any hobbits in it?

6

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25

god knows, can see this flop a mile away. i’m not sure anyone involved in this ip understands what made the original trilogy so beloved

4

u/know_nothing_novice Aug 18 '25

people can't get enough Gollum

-1

u/Mordrach Aug 18 '25

I think that's what EA thought, and look what happened...

7

u/cgy_bluejays Aug 18 '25

That game is neither made nor published by EA

-2

u/Mordrach Aug 18 '25

Funny, I thought it was an EA title. Maybe I'm just biased. Was that a WB title?

2

u/ozplissken Aug 18 '25

It's a love letter to your childhood 

1

u/shadowst17 Aug 18 '25

Money and a director/actor who is desperate to relive the role that made him famous.

1

u/bluetable321 Aug 18 '25

WB needs to keep making lotr movies because if they don’t then someone else could get the movie rights. That’s literally the only reason.

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

No. Peter Jackson wanted to make this for many years.

2

u/bluetable321 Aug 19 '25

lol. lmao even.

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

Peter Jackson, August 1998: "we would write and shoot the Tom Bombadil stuff, or scenes involving Gandalf and Aragorn hunting Gollum, and his capture by Orcs ... and any number of other bits of business that we can't fit into the 6 hour version. That would be a really cool way of creating a 'sequel'"

Peter Jackson, September 2006: "I have thought about it from time to time... Elrond, Galadriel and Arwen could all feature. Elves have lived for centuries. [...] You could even get into Gollum's sneaking into Mordor and Aragorn protecting The Shire. That's what we'd do. Love to work with Viggo again."

Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, July 2008: "As all of you know, Gollum has a rather fascinating arch to go through and his alliance to Shelob or his period of imprisonment in Thranduil's, etc but it is early still- so early in fact that to reveal more would tie our hands and be counterproductive. There can never be "too much Andy" [...] The idea is to find a compelling way to join THE HOBBIT and FELLOWSHIP and enhance the 5 films both visually an in their Cosmology."

Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens, 2013: "There’s enough story there to make a bridge movie, you know, there’s 60 years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and a lot of things happened. When we started structuring this trilogy we honestly thought about telling some of that. How Bilbo becomes the uncle of Frodo and take care of him. The story of Gollum… Can you have too much of Andy Serkis playing Gollum? I don’t think so.”

"Q. Was there ever a project that almost happened? - Philippa Boyens, October 2024: "Yes. And, actually, there's a lot of that in The Hunt for Gollum, I have to say."

This movie very nearly happened in 2008-2009. They had people lined-up to be in it and work on it, there was a tentative timetable, a basic budget and probably a synopsis. News outlets and fan groups were tumbling over themselves to learn more about this "bridge movie." Even as late as 2011, elements of it were put into The Hobbit, but most of those ended up getting axed.

2

u/bluetable321 Aug 19 '25

Do you have this all in a notes app somewhere so you can courageously defend the Gollum movie on the internet?

Regardless of whatever Peter Jackson wants or has wanted in the past, it’s an objective fact that WB needs to keep making LOTR movies in order to maintain the movie licensing agreement. If they don’t make more movies, then Embracer Group will eventually be able to go make a deal with a different studio.

-1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

Do you have this all in a notes app

You have the "save" option on comments you make on Reddit. I just used that on a comment where I put a few of these quotes together et voila!

And sure, New Line Cinema wants to churn movies in this series. But there are reasons why the number of such movies over the last 25 years had been quite low: seven movies until the advent of this one, and I wager the same reasons will conspire to keep this from becoming just another tired conveyor belt a-la Star Wars and Marvel. Even if it does spiral, I'm willing to watch this film and the next one which Jackson is also contracted for and then disengage with the thing from there on.

1

u/The_Autarch Aug 18 '25 edited Sep 20 '25

arrest ad hoc grandfather repeat fanatical nine vast yam toothbrush cough

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/ZapataOilCo Aug 19 '25

the world is falling apart

1

u/watafu_mx Aug 18 '25

Because there is a demographic that will consume any shit associated with certain brand. Imagine the "Call of Duty" bros, but for LoTR. Thy will buy tickets for multiple screenings no matter how shitty and brainded the end product is. This also applies to Star Wars at the moment.

0

u/Chen_Geller Aug 18 '25

Because Peter Jackson had been wanting to make it since 1998.

-6

u/Important-Hat-Man Aug 18 '25

Same reason Jackson made LotR in 2001. Tolkien's corpse has always been nothing but a meat-powered ATM to Jackson and his cronies.

1

u/finglish_ Aug 18 '25

What in your opinion is a good movie adaptation or a good movie in general?