Fan film: The Hunt for Gollum

[mollyringle]

Released today online and free:
http://thehuntforgollum.com/

LOTR fans, go watch! This is a short film, slightly over 30 minutes, made entirely by volunteer fans on a non-profit basis. And given the shoestring budget, I must say it looks, sounds, and feels amazing. If it weren't for the different cast, I'd believe it was a long extra sequence from Peter Jackson's extended DVDs. And actually, the guy who plays Gandalf looks so much like Ian McKellen that I might not have noticed the difference there, at least for the first few minutes.

Basically it covers the little sequence mentioned in the Council of Elrond, and the Appendices, in which Aragorn goes out hunting for Gollum, before the main events of LOTR take place. The filming and writing is very much in the style of the New Line movies, complete with a brief dream-sequence by Arwen and some amusing grumbling by Gollum. I'll be keeping my eye on this production team to see what they do next.

Thanks to Dave in the UK for emailing me about this project! Might not have reached my radar otherwise.

Comments

[maidenjedi]

That is amazing - I'm totally enthralled with everything on their site, and haven't even gotten to the actual film yet! Thanks for the heads-up!!

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

No problem! It makes me so darn proud of fans. And makes me scowl at the Tolkien Estate for (undoubtedly) only letting them do this on a non-profit basis.

[extrajoker.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is very cool! -- thanks for the link!

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

My pleasure!

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Just the trailer looks amazing! I'm off to visit some LOTR fans this evening, so will definitely be pointing them to it - thanks for linking!

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Great! The word deserves to be spread.

[hess42.livejournal.com]

I watched this last night and it is about 75% awesome. Really, really good stuff.

(the other 25% made me giggle, and not in the good way, but still - this was SO good overall)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hee, true on that 25%, but then, the Peter Jackson versions had some of that too. Tolkien just gets too serious sometimes and crosses the line into goofy/absurd.

[naill-renfro.livejournal.com]

That's encouraging -- LOTR fandom comes and goes, and each time I'm afraid this will be its final fadeout, but I'm glad to see there's still that much fandom energy out there.