Sir Ian McKellen dropped a stinker on the British talkshow This Morning earlier in the week so putrid that even Gollum himself might steer clear of it. The 85-year-old star of the Lord of the Rings movies was being asked about a return to Middle-earth in The Hunt for Gollum, which will see Peter Jackson (this time as producer) and Andy Serkis (director, and Gollum) heading back to JRR Tolkien’s high fantasy classic more than two decades after the former completed 2003’s Oscar-winning The Return of the King.
“There’ll be a script arriving sometime in the new year, and I’ll judge whether I want to go back,” laughed McKellen. “I would. I would love to go back to New Zealand, number one. And also, I don’t like the idea of anyone else playing Gandalf.”
But then he added: “I’m told it’s two films. I probably shouldn’t be saying that. But I haven’t read the script. So, I don’t know if it is.”
Is McKellen winding us up? For those who haven’t been keeping a close eye on The Hunt for Gollum, which was announced in May, it’s possible this doesn’t sound all that weird. After all, Jackson made trilogies out of both The Lord of the Rings (1,000 pages +) and the far more breezy, 300-page Hobbit.
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And here lies the problem with The Hunt for Gollum, and in particular the prospect of it being stretched to two movies. It’s not a book at all, in fact it’s barely a few hundred words of high-end Gandalf-speak at the Council of Elrond, in Rivendell, before the quest to destroy the ring begins a-proper (though there are some background details in the Lord of the Rings’ appendices and Tolkien’s posthumously assembled Unfinished Tales). Yes, we’re told that Aragorn’s search for the wretched former ring-bearer, at the behest of the grey wizard, took many years. But while the future King of Gondor’s adventures in the period are well-documented in Tolkien’s writings, he definitely did not spend all this time trudging through murky pools in search of Middle-earth’s equivalent of the guy in the park who’s always talking to pigeons.
Fair enough, Gollum is essentially Middle-earth’s hide-and-seek champion, a creature with the ability to vanish into a rock crevice like a feral cat who owes you rent money. Tracking him would be like trying to follow lembas breadcrumbs through a hurricane on the peaks of the Misty Mountains, or chasing a hyperactive squirrel hopped up on pipeweed through Fangorn Forest. But two (probably two-hour plus) movies? Perhaps we’ll get 20 minutes of Aragorn thoughtfully stroking his chin while staring at some vague footprints, or a 45-minute subplot where Gandalf takes a quick detour to the Prancing Pony for a not-so-swift half or eight. Or maybe there will be huge detours away from the dead marshes in which Strider gets involved in something else entirely, just for a bit of a break from the tedium.
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The only issue here, of course, is that Bloom will be approaching 50 when this thing eventually gets made, but will be appearing as a younger version of the character he played 20-plus years ago. But don’t panic, the film-makers are reportedly planning to overcome such issues – elves are supposed to be immortal, but they do not age backwards – via the magic of artificial intelligence. “I did speak to Andy [Serkis] and he did say they were thinking about how to do things,” Bloom told Variety. “I was like, ‘How would that even work?’ And he was like, ‘Well, AI!’”
No doubt 65-year-old Viggo Mortensen will also be pricking up his ears at this news.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. It would seem like a film based on the hunt for Gollum would reasonably conclude with them finding Gollum. That’s something they didn’t do. Bilbo stumbled upon him, haphazardly in the media we’ve already consumed.
So, maybe, at least give the film a different name.
It’s been a minute since I’ve read the books, so feel free to correct me, but doesnt Gandalf ask Aragorn to find Gollum after Bilbo’s birthday? Then they imprison him with the elves who feel pity for him and let him climb a tree. Then he won’t come down or something and gets away.
I assumed this is what the hunt for Gollum is, but I haven’t looked at anything to confirm this.
“Precious, it’s been called that before…”
That is what I remember too.
He’s also captured by Saurons forces at some point before being let out to find the gang in Moria
Right, right, right. I forgot about that detail. It feels like, again, they don’t though, right? Gollum is found by orcs (?) and interrogated before sneaking out and eventually stalking Frodo.
He didn’t sneak out, they let him go so they could tail him and find The Ring.
I think that’s more where this will lie, the elves or someone hunts him after he escapes but he gets away until Bilbo runs into him.
Nah, that’s a period when gandalf fucked off for 17 years (in books) (or 2 minutes of montage to library in movie) to find what the ring was and returned to shire to make frodo go away
I read fellowship after seeing the movie, the movie is what got me into the books and I read all of them as soon as I was done with the Fellowship movie because I had to know what happened, and I was like, 12. Anyway, it made it really interesting to me because I was like 17 YEARS?! Gandalf was gone for YEARS?! Then he just showed up again one day and was like “hey remember me it’s been 17 years anyway the end of the world is coming and you gotta fuck off to Mordor now”.
But don’t forget to spend half a year to make a cover story by buying house near the woods, good cover is very important or nazgul nsa will look at spending records and realize you are gone (thus you have a ring, according to statistical models)
This takes place during the 17-year time skip between Bilbo’s birthday party and when Frodo returns home to discover an agitated Gandalf in his home asking if the Ring’s safe. What, you didn’t think it felt like Gandalf going to read that diary in Gondor took 17 years??? Yeah, the movies kinda streamlined and simplified that part.
It’s wild they’re retroactively adding shit they just completely excised from the original film adaptations. What’s next, a side movie about the Hobbits encountering the barrow wights and Tom Bombadil before they reach Bree? A movie about the Scouring of the Shire?
That was seriously 17 years in the book? Wow yeah, the movie made it seem like a week max.
I hear the RoP S2 already fucked Bombadil pretty bad. I couldn’t make it past half of ep 1, though. 🤮🥲
To be fair, the Amazon show is an entirely separate adaptation and has no relation to the Jacksonverse.
I would assume Warner Brothers would fuck him up in a different way. Judging from the quality of the writing in the Hobbit trilogy I would assume they’d turn Tom Bombadil into a stoner stereotype who also farts constantly or something
Yeah, that’s only one of the problems that the whole set of fuckeries share between them.