Producer Peter Jackson explained why he’s returning to The Lord of the Rings franchise after directing the original trilogy as well as The Hobbit trilogy for Director Andy Serkis’ The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
Peter Jackson speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was announced earlier this month with Warner Bros. Discovery revealing that Andy Serkis would not only reprise his role as Gollum, but he would direct the film as well.
The company also shared that Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens would be producing the film. Warner Bros. Film heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy stated, “We are honored they have agreed be our partners on these two new films. With Andy coming aboard to direct ‘Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,’ we continue an important commitment to excellence that is a true hallmark of how we all want to venture ahead and further contribute to the Lord of the Rings cinematic history.”
Ian McKellen as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), New Line Cinema
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For their part, Jackson, Walsh and Boyens said, “It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker — Gollum! As life long fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”
Serkis also added, “Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth Peter, Fran and Philippa. With Mike and Pam, and the Warner Bros team on the quest as well, alongside WETA and our filmmaking family in New Zealand, it’s just all too delicious…”
Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Following this announcement Jackson spoke with Deadline on why he chose to return to the franchise and why they chose the Hunt for Gollum as a story.
He relayed, “The Gollum/Sméagol character has always fascinated me because Gollum reflects the worst of human nature, whilst his Sméagol side is, arguably, quite sympathetic.”
“I think he connects with readers and film audiences alike, because there’s a little bit of both of them in all of us. We really want to explore his backstory and delve into those parts of his journey we didn’t have time to cover in the earlier films. It’s too soon to know who will cross his path, but suffice to say we will take our lead from Professor Tolkien,” Jackson explained.
Dominic Monaghan as Merry, Elijah Wood as Frodo, Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, and Billy Boyd as Pippin in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition (2003), Warner Bros. Pictures
Not only did Jackson explain why he’s returning to The Lord of the Rings and why he chose the Hunt for Gollum, but Boyens, who will be writing the film alongside Walsh, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou shared her excitement for the story.
She informed the outlet, “Gollum’s story is one of the most compelling to us in terms of a character that we couldn’t go as deeply into as we wanted to before, which sounds strange when you say that, given how familiar he is to everybody.”
“Gollum’s life span takes place in such an interesting period of Middle-earth. When the question was first asked, this was the first story we thought of,” she elaborated. “Because I can tell you, and people might not believe this, but we had zero expectations of going back to this. It wasn’t something we were looking to do, particularly. So when the question was asked, it was, what would draw you back? And it was about working with the people we we’re working with. It was also about the chance to work with Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy at the studio. Alan Horn is now back at the studio. It just felt right.”
Sauron’s army attacks Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition (2003), Warner Bros. Pictures
She later reiterated this was the first story that came to my mind when approached to return to Tolkien’s world while discussing why Andy Serkis was best fit to direct, “We wanted him to tell the story of Gollum and the hunt for Gollum as soon as we decided, okay, that’s the story. And Pete knew he didn’t want to direct go back into the world of Middle-earth again. [Peter] really enjoyed working with Kenji Kamiyama, who directed War of the Rohirrim. As soon as Pete decided, okay, I’m not going to direct it myself, and it’s going to be Gollum’s story, I swear to God, there was no one else but Andy Serkis.”
She continued, “There’s nobody else you can think of who knows what goes into that character and we know what he brings to it and brings to the whole world of Middle-earth.”
Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
While Jackson detailed his team would take their lead from Tolkien, Boyens noted that Serkis will be providing his own take on the film, “Andy is going to have a really interesting take. It’s going to be his own take, because what we don’t want this film to be is just the fourth film in the trilogy.”
She then addressed potential naysayers, “This film has to work in its own way. And that’s our job. That’s what we are going to have to be able to do. I know there’s plenty of people out there who will be like, oh no, why are they doing this? Why are they going back in? Well, that’s our job, to prove why we think that it’s a good idea.”
Andy Serkis speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Black Panther”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
As for what Serkis’ take is, he informed Deadline, “Gollum has always stuck with me throughout all of these years. I’ve read audio books of the trilogy and the Silmarillion and The Hobbit, so Tolkien’s world has never left me in all of that time since we did the first films. And the character particularly has remained such an enormous part of my life. So it’s absolutely thrilling to be able to go back and do a deep dive into his world again, and specifically into Gollum’s psychology.”
“I know we’re all interested in investigating on a deeper level who that character is, and on top of that, to be able to direct and hopefully create a film which has its place within the canon, but also something that’s fresh and new and a different approach,” he added.
Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
As far as other characters aside from Gollum that might appear in the film, Serkis said, “That’s a difficult question to answer right at this moment in time, because we’re really in the nascent stages of what it is exactly where we’re doing, and where the story’s going to take us.”
“So I don’t want to commit anything right now. I mean, because it’s so raw and so raw and wriggling, and we are just literally having very early state script discussions and ideas of exactly where and how we’re going to drop anchor with the character and his journey and how he is or comes into contact with other characters, and the characters that we know and don’t know. So still, I would hate to say anything that’s going to commit us at this point, because it’s literally all up for grabs,” he concluded.
Elijah Wood as Frodo in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition (2003), Warner Bros. Pictures
As for what Serkis, Jackson, Boyens, Walsh, and company can adapt, Boyens made it very clear, “We have the right to the Lord of the Rings and the appendices, and that’s it.”
However, she added, “I would love to see that expand if there was the opportunity to do so, but there is so much that is in those three books. I know that especially hardcore fans of Professor Tolkien, they always get nervous that there’s only so much story. But look at War of the Rohirrim. It’s a page and a half at first glance in the books. But there are lots of threads throughout the book.”
A still from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
As for what one might expect in The Hunt for Gollum, Gandalf informs Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring, “Light, light of Sun and Moon, he still feared and hated, and he always will, I think; but he was cunning. He found he could hide from daylight and moonshine, and make his way swiftly and softly by dead of night with his pale cold eyes, and catch small frightened or unwary things. He grew stronger and bolder with new food and new air. He found his way into Mirkwood, as one would expect.”
Gandalf then informs Frodo that he did indeed see Gollum in Mirkwood, “‘I saw him there. … but before that he had wandered far, following Bilbo’s trail. It was difficult to learn anything from him for certain, for his talk was constantly interrupted by curses and threats.”
After recalling the manner of Gollum’s curses and threats, he told Frodo, “But from hints dropped among the snarls I gathered that his padding feet had taken him at last to Esgaroth, and even to the streets of Dale, listening secretly and peering. Well, the news of the great events went far and wide in Wilderland, and many had heard Bilbo’s name and knew where he came from. We had made no secret of our return journey to his home in the West. Gollum’s sharp ears would soon learn what he wanted.”
Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Shadowfax in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), New Line Cinema
When asked why Gollum did not make it to the Shire, Gandalf said to Frodo, ” I think Gollum tried to. He set out and came back westward, as far as the Great River. But then he turned aside. He was not daunted by the distance, I am sure. No, something else drew him away. So my friends think, those that hunted him for me.”
As for who those friends are, Gandalf regaled Frodo, “The Wood-elves tracked him first, an easy task for them, for his trail was still fresh then. Through Mirkwood and back again it led them, though they never caught him. The wood was full of the rumour of him, dreadful tales even among beasts and birds. The Woodmen said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles.”
Next, Gandalf explains to Frodo how he let the trail go cold, “But at the western edge of Mirkwood the trail turned away. It wandered off southwards and passed out of the Wood-elves’ ken, and was lost. And then I made a great mistake. Yes, Frodo, and not the first; though I fear it may prove the worst. I let the matter be. I let him go; for I had much else to think of at that time, and I still trusted the lore of Saruman.”
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition (2003), Warner Bros. Pictures
However, with the help of Aragorn he was able to pick it back up again, “And my search would have been in vain, but for the help that I had from a friend: Aragorn, the greatest traveller and huntsman of this age of the world. Together we sought for Gollum down the whole length of Wilderland, without hope, and without success. But at last, when I had given up the chase and turned to other paths, Gollum was found. My friend returned out of great perils bringing the miserable creature with him.”
“What he had been doing he would not say,” Gandalf said to Frodo. “He only wept and called us cruel, with many a gollum in his throat; and when we pressed him he whined and cringed, and rubbed his long hands, licking his fingers as if they pained him, as if he remembered some old torture. But I am afraid there is no possible doubt: he had made his slow, sneaking way, step by step, mile by mile, south, down at last to the Land of Mordor.”
Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Finally, Gandalf informed Frodo that Aragorn captured him after he had left Mordor, “When he was found he had already been there long, and was on his way back. On some errand of mischief. But that does not matter much now. His worst mischief was done.”
He also informs Frodo that Sauron learns from Gollum that the One Ring is likely in the Shire, “through him the Enemy has learned that the One has been found again. He knows where Isildur fell. He knows where Gollum found his ring. He knows that it is a Great Ring, for it gave long life. He knows that it is not one of the Three, for they have never been lost, and they endure no evil. He knows that it is not one of the Seven, or the Nine, for they are accounted for. He knows that it is the One. And he has at last heard, I think, of hobbits and the Shire.”
Ian McKellen as Gandalf arrives in The Shire in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), New Line Cinema
Clearly, there is lots of room for a film in there, but it will have to include Gandalf, Aragorn, the Wood-elves, as well as servants of Sauron based in Mordor. As for locations, it’s clear Mirkwood and Mordor as well as the Wilderland should be showcased.
The film has all the hallmarks of grand chase film and could be very interesting with lots of adventure as it follows the Wood-elves and Aragorn as they hunt Gollum through Middle-earth.
Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
What do you make of Jackson’s explanation for why he’s returning? What’s your hope for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum film?
