The news broke yesterday that Andy Serkis will direct and star in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, a new movie which aims to bring the iconic franchise back to theaters.
Peter Jackson is producing the project, but if the premise sounds familiar, it's probably because a 2009 fan-made short film - also titled The Hunt for Gollum - has been racking up millions of views on YouTube for the past decade-and-a-half. Until earlier today, that is.
Directed by Chris Bouchard, the 39-minute film is mighty ambitious and received plenty of praise when it was released. Set during the opening act of The Fellowship of the Ring, the short elaborates on Aragorn's hunt for Gollum and is presumably the same story Warner Bros.' upcoming movie will tell.
Likely in response to fans and news outlets pointing out the similarities, the studio has hit the video with a copyright strike and had it removed from YouTube (it was there before the announcement and, at last count, had been viewed more than 13 million times).
While Warner Bros. didn't share an official statement, a message on the website read, "This video contains content from Warner Bros. Entertainment, who has blocked it on copyright grounds."
The response to the news of a movie revolving around Gollum has already been pretty tepid, but this has incensed many faithful Lord of the Rings fans. The $5000 movie premiered at the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival in 2009 and even has its own Wikipedia page.
"That’s so lame," one frustrated Redditor exclaimed (via IGN). "These greedy f**ks can’t help but hoard every penny, like Smaug. The video already had 13 million views, and was peacefully existing for all these years."
Warner Bros. must have realised they'd made a misstep here because, since we first broke this news on SFFGazette.com, they've backtracked and removed the copyright takedown (restoring the film to its rightful place on YouTube). The studio has claimed it was an error but most aren't buying it; either way, Bouchard is happy.
The official version of The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is set to be released in 2026.
"Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle-earth Peter, Fran and Philippa," Serkis said when the news broke. "With Mike and Pam, and the Warner Bros team on the quest as well, alongside WETA and our film making family in New Zealand, it’s just all too delicious."
"It is an honor and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that stinker - Gollum!" Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens added. "As life long fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with [WBD film chiefs] Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!"
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.