Warner Bros. recently made the big announcement that the next Lord of the Rings movie to be released will be titled The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum and it will be directed by Andy Serkis and produced by Peter Jackson.
After that was announced a 15 year old fan film was shut down by the studio with a copyright block on YouTube. The fan film is a non-profit project titled The Hunt for Gollum.
Not long after the short film was back up and running on YouTube and you can watch it below!
The story for the short follows the Heir of Isildur; the “greatest huntsman and traveler in Middle Earth” as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.
The film, which had 13 million views, was created by Chris Bouchard, and he released the following statement on Facebook: “We’re all pretty excited here about The Warner Bros announcement making an adaptation of The Hunt for Gollum with Andy Serkis & Peter Jackson!
He added: “[Edit seems our short got blocked from YouTube, hope temporarily – we’re enquiring in case it can be reinstated as it’s clearly a non profit homage/fan effort],” the production wrote.”
He continued: “We were so inspired by how they imagined Middle-earth (and Gollum) that we spent 2 years making our micro budget film version as a labour of love.
“For sure a lot more is possible than what we could achieve with Gollum kept off screen as a voice in a sack for most of our film. After all we could only manage 1 full CGI shot of Gollum on our budget (the last shot of the film).
“Our indie film effort still lurks on YouTube for wanderers who are not lost, or those who seek… Excited for what the new film will be!”
It’s obvious why the video was initially taken down, but it’s good to see that it’s back up an running for people to watch.
This is actually a great fan film worth checking out!
