Breja: Because they don't have the rights to the Silmarillion (or any of tha later books covering those events). Neither does Amazon for that matter. They are all basically trying to scavenge an entire franchise out of the appendices to LotR.

Breja: Because they don't have the rights to the Silmarillion (or any of tha later books covering those events). Neither does Amazon for that matter. They are all basically trying to scavenge an entire franchise out of the appendices to LotR.

LesTyebe: Incorrectly assumed that any company producing movies about Tolkien's world would want access to all of it. Probably should have considered that most studio executives would see Middle Earth as an exploitable resource (pre-made story, built-in audience) rather than a large, detailed mythical world with a long recorded history.

"Scavenge" seems a very apt description.

LesTyebe: Same here.

Also, my own arrogant suggestion to the artists with access to the license; Why rehash Gollum, when there is all of The Silmarillion (Turin Turambar, Tinuviel and Beren) to draw upon?

Breja: The more I think about it, the more problems for this film I come up with, that really make me scratch my head.

Serkis is 60 years old. I know his looks don't matter, but Gollum is a tremendously physical role, I can't imagine a 60 year old guy doing all the crawling around on all fours for he whole movie. I guess someone else might actually end up doing a lot of the motion capture for that. But even doing the Gollum voice was famously super hard on Serkis back when making LotR. It really does sound like a bit of a stretch to focus the movie on his character and have him direct too.

Two major characters one would expect to return in this are obviously Gandalf and Aragorn. Aragorn will definitely ahve to be recast, because anyone who knows anything about Viggo Mortensen knows there is no way he is coming back for this, especially as he would have to be digitally de-aged for the whole thing. He'd never roll with that, and it would be absurdly expensive anyway. Wouldn't look too good either, unless you'd have the whole movie happen at night. The recasting will amost certainly feel weird, since this isn't some "young Aragorn" time period, this would be set right before LotR.

Ian McKellen might also have to be recast. Extensive Gandalf make-up might cover up the age difference, but he already famously didn't have great time on the set of the Hobbit, to put things mildly. Anyway, having McKellen's Gandalf with a new Aragorn would probably feel really odd.

amok: Several assumptions here. Most importantly you assume the film will be set after Gollum escapes from Mordor and is captured by Gandalf and Aragorn. Why cannot the film be set in the time between Bilbo getting the ring and Gollum is captured by Sauron? There is what? A 30-40 years period here that has Gollum searching for the ring - why not set the film then? Tolkien has noting to say abpout Gollum in this period, so the writers can more or less do as they want.

amok: Also - noone say you have to use the same actors. It not exacly shockingly new to use different actors in very long film series.

Breja: Well yeah, I'm operating under the assumption that the "Hunt for Gollum" will be about what is usually referred to as "the Hunt for Gollum" and not some other stuff that happened to Gollum. Also, it seems a pretty reasonable assumption they'd want to bring in familiar characters, regardless of how good an idea it is, like they did with Legolas in The Hobbit films.

amok: Saurons hunt for Gollum, ending in his capture and taking to Mordor

Breja: I may be misremembering, but I'm pretty sure Sauron didn't hunt for him. Or even know about his existence. Gollum just wandered into Mordor on his own some time after leaving the Misty Mountains, got captured and interrogated. Sauron essentially just got lucky. The only people to ever actually "hunt" for Gollum, as in purposfully look for him, were Gandalf and those he had helping him like Aragorn.

amok: but Sauron knew about the rings exitence, and Gollum was linked to the ring. When Gollum was tortured in Mordor it was to give away the location of the ring, so Sauron must at some point know that Gollum had information about it

Breja: I think it was more "holy shit, this random intruder bears the mark of the Ring, interrogate him at once, learn what he knows!" than knowledge prior to that. He certainly wasn't hunted for and dragged into Mordor by Sauron's servants.

Sure, that can be altered for the movie, but still, it's not exactly some great stretch on my part to presume the "Hunt for Gollum" will be largely about the two well known characters who are also the two guys who were actually hunting for Gollum.