Draft:The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is an upcoming fantasy film directed by Andy Serkis from a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou, based on the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Produced by New Line Cinema, the film is an expansion of producer Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. Serkis reprises his role as Gollum from the previous films.

Development of new films based on Tolkien's works was announced in February 2023, with Jackson and the team behind the previous films returning. The film's working title and Serkis's roles as director and star were revealed in May 2024. Writing had begun by then, with production based in Wellington, New Zealand, as with the previous films.

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is intended to be released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2026.

Cast

 * Andy Serkis as Gollum: A wretched Hobbit-like creature whose mind is poisoned by the One Ring. Serkis portrays the character via motion capture.

Development
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced in February 2023 that the company had signed a new agreement with Embracer Group's Middle-earth Enterprises—who held the right to adapt J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit—to develop multiple new The Lord of the Rings live-action films. This deal came after Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema produced two film trilogies, The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014), based on Tolkien's works, and while they were expanding the franchise to animation with the film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024). The films are separate from the concurrent television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power which is produced by Amazon Studios through a different agreement. Peter Jackson, the director and co-writer of the film trilogies, and his co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens said Warner Bros. and Embracer had kept them "in the loop" regarding the new deal and they were interested in hearing about the companies' plans, following their frustration at not being involved with The Rings of Power. Boyens said working on The War of the Rohirrim had reignited the group's passion for the world of Middle-earth and showed the potential for more stories to be told based on the appendices of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The new agreement with Embracer was brokered by Warner Bros. Pictures CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who visited Jackson in New Zealand to re-establish the studio's relationship with him. Industry insiders said Warner Bros. wanted to distance future films from The Rings of Power and would continue to tell stories set in Tolkien's Third Age, avoiding the Second Age time period that is explored in the series.

Andy Serkis, who portrayed Gollum via motion capture in both film trilogies, was asked in March 2023 if he was interested in returning for future films. He said he would if Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens were also returning. Around October of that year, the trio approached Serkis about him directing a new film focused on Gollum. Serkis's directorial career began as a second unit director on the Hobbit films, and he said the opportunity to direct this film was a "dream come true". In May 2024, Zaslav announced that Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens were producing two new The Lord of the Rings films for Warner Bros. and New Line, the first of which had the working title The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum and was intended to be released in 2026. Serkis was set to direct the film and reprise his role as Gollum. Walsh and Boyens were in the early stages of writing the script with The War of the Rohirrim writers Phoebe Gittins, who is Boyens's daughter, and Arty Papageorgiou. Ken Kamins was executive producing with Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish of the Imaginarium Studios. Serkis said the new film was being produced with Wētā Workshop, Wētā FX, and others who worked on the film trilogies in New Zealand, and the production was confirmed to again be based in Wellington; this was a relief for local filmmakers after production on The Rings of Power had been moved away from New Zealand. Serkis said they would take advantage of improvements in motion capture technology that Wētā FX made with the Planet of the Apes and Avatar franchises. He described the film as "a deep dive where we investigate Gollum's character", and said it was too early in the writing process to confirm whether any other actors would be reprising their roles from the previous films.

Based on the working title, the new film was expected to adapt material from the appendices covering the characters Gandalf and Aragorn hunting for Gollum during the events of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). This was previously adapted into a fan film, The Hunt for Gollum, which was released on YouTube in 2009 and was temporarily taken down by a Warner Bros. copyright claim the day after the new film's announcement. The studio said this had been done in error. At the end of May, Viggo Mortenson said he would be open to reprising his role as Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the new film as long as his current age was appropriate for the character. The next month, Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett said they were also open to reprising their roles as Gandalf and Galadriel, respectively, from the previous films.

Release
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is intended to be released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2026.