Andy Serkis Provides Update On 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum,' Says Script Not Finished Yet
Andy Serkis, who is directing the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum film, provided an update on the film.
Speaking to Collider, Serkis shared that he and his team are about to being a preparation period for the film and aim to begin shooting sometime in the first half of next year.
He said, “We're very early on in the process. We've been talking about the film over the course of the last year. We are about to start a period of prep in the next few months or so. We will be shooting in the early to mid-part of next year, I guess, and then it'll be as long as it takes to shoot, which — it's a sizable movie — all ready for a December 2027 release.”
“I'm incredibly excited to go back and work with my friends and family in New Zealand and actually do something which is, I think, going to be surprising, and yet very much part of the lore and the feel of the trilogy,” he continued. “The sensibility of it will feel, I think, close to that, and yet we're investigating in greater depth the character formerly known as Smeagol, but mostly known as Gollum.”
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As for the script, Serkis was asked if it was still being worked on he and confirmed that was the case, “Yeah, we’re still working [on it]. We’re very, very early sort of relatively early stages, but it’s getting very exciting.”
Back in October 2024, Philippa Boyens, who is working on the screenplay for the film, told Empire that the movie would take place “after the birthday part of Bilbo and before the Mines of Moria.”
Furthermore, she confirmed that the film would be told through Gollum’s perspective, “It’s a specific chunk of incredible untold story, told through the perspective of this incredible creature.”
Last May, Boyens also informed Deadline that this film would be Serkis’ own take. She said, “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.
As for what his take is, Serkis revealed at the time, “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.
The hunt for Gollum is detailed in The Fellowship of the Ring by Gandalf who relays the various portions of the chase to Frodo. It is not from the viewpoint of Gollum.
First, Gandalf reveals he encountered 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.”
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.”
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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.”
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.”
What do you make of the script for this film not being finished yet?
Blech.
The language used "investigating," and "fresh and new perspective," among others, reeks of woke social lecturing.
What's next? Orc immigration to the Shire with the concurrent rise in murder, trafficking, and genocide is "strength in our diversity?"
Whenever I hear someone is creating "something that’s fresh and new and a different approach" of a beloved book and characters, my instinct is to run the other way.
As Hano Solo said, "I've got a bad feeling about this".