Elijah Wood, who played Frodo in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, recently hyped up Andy Serkis’ upcoming The Hunt for Gollum film after revealing he’s read the film’s script.
During an appearance at Desert Con in Monterrey, Mexico, Wood was asked about The Hunt for Gollum, “Have you already talked with Andy Serkis about the project? Do you know something about what you are going to do in the project?”
Wood answered, “Well, I can’t say anything about that.”
However, he revealed, “I know a great deal about it. I’ve read it. It’s really good. There’s some wonderful people involved. I mean, the thing that’s so exciting is that it’s really getting the creative band back together. Like the kind of creative brain trust behind Lord of the Rings: Fran, Peter, Philippa. They’re heavily involved. And then the same production designers. It’s going to be shot in New Zealand. So, it’s going to carry with it such a continuity with so many of the people who were part of Lord of the Rings. And I’m really excited about that. It just kind of feels like getting that old machine up and running again with all of the right people.”
“So I’m really excited. There’s going to be some fun bits that I think people will be stoked about,” he concluded.
It’s quite possible Wood will reprise his role as Frodo in the film. Ian McKellen revealed at the Love of Fantasy event in London back in August that Frodo was in the film.
He shared, “I hear there’s going to be another movie set in Middle-earth, and it’s going to start filming in May. It’s going to be directed by Gollum and it’s all about Gollum.”
He then confirmed Frodo would be in the film, “I’ll tell you two secrets about the casting: there’s a character in the movie called Frodo, and there’s another character called Gandalf. Apart from that, my lips are sealed!”
The film’s producer Philippa Boyens previously told Empire that the film “falls after the birthday part of Bilbo and before the Mines of Moria.”
She also shared that the film will predominantly be told from Gollum’s perspective, “It’s a specific chunk of incredible untold story, told through the perspective of this incredible creature.”
Peter Jackson, who is producing the film explained to Deadline why they chose the Hunt for Gollum story, “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.
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf described to Frodo the hunt for Gollum, “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.”
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.”
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.”