Tag: J.R.R. Tolkien

Posted on in Film News

UPDATE: ‘Lord of The Rings’ Standalone Anime Film ‘War Of The Rohirrim’ Heading To Theaters; Focuses On King Helm Hammerhand

Earlier this week, it was announced that New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Animation would be teaming for a brand new anime film set within the fantastical world of Middle-Earth created by British author J.R.R. Tolkien. The project will explore the origin’s of Helm’s Deep and King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan.

K̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶H̶e̶l̶m̶ ̶H̶a̶m̶m̶e̶r̶h̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶e̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶v̶i̶d̶e̶o̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶M̶i̶d̶d̶l̶e̶-̶E̶a̶r̶t̶h̶:̶ ̶S̶h̶a̶d̶o̶w̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶W̶a̶r̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶N̶a̶z̶g̶u̶l̶.̶ ̶O̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶h̶o̶s̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶e̶r̶v̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶a̶r̶k̶ ̶L̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶S̶a̶u̶r̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶H̶o̶b̶b̶i̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶L̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶l̶o̶g̶i̶e̶s̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶m̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶w̶h̶y̶ ̶W̶a̶r̶n̶e̶r̶ ̶B̶r̶o̶s̶.̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶N̶e̶w̶ ̶L̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶C̶i̶n̶e̶m̶a̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶e̶v̶e̶l̶o̶p̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶e̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶l̶m̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶.̶ ̶

UPDATE: A producer on the project saw our original headline and has clarified on Twitter they won’t be taking the same liberties with Helm Hammerhand as the video game did and sticking to canon instead. Sorry, for the miscommunication.

The Lord of The Rings: The War of The Rohirrim will be directed by Kenji Kamiyama, who is likely best known to folks in the west for his work on the series Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blood: The Last Vampire, and the series Blade Runner: Black Lotus, which has yet to debut.

Below is some examples from Kamiyama’s work.

It’s script will be penned by The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’s Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews alongside Oscar-winning screenwriter Philippa Boyens acting as a consultant.

Below is WarnerMedia’s official press release from this week.

Twenty years after delivering the award-winning “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, based on the iconic books by J.R.R. Tolkien, New Line Cinema has partnered with Warner Bros. Animation to produce an original anime feature directed by acclaimed filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama that will plunge fans into a legendary battle that helped shape Middle-earth and set the stage for the epic adventures brought to life in “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. 

“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” explores and expands the untold story behind the fortress of Helm’s Deep, delving into the life and bloodsoaked times of one of Middle-earth’s most legendary figures; the mighty King of Rohan – Helm Hammerhand.

With Kamiyama (the “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” and “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” TV series) at the helm, the all-new standalone feature is being produced by Joseph Chou (“Blade Runner: Black Lotus” TV series) with Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (“The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance”) penning the screenplay.  Oscar-winner Philippa Boyens, from the screenwriting team behind “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies, is serving as a consultant on the project.

Though a standalone story, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” is being created as a companion piece to New Line’s “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, with story and artistic elements woven throughout that will reconnect fans to the excitement and cinematic wonder of Middle-earth.

Posted on in Features

Will The Blue Wizards of The Second Age Appear In Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series?

Filming on the new Lord of The Rings series resumed at the end of September in Auckland, New Zealand with a cast that consists of Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, and Joseph Mawle.

The new series writers will have to fill in many blanks and may be allowed to use certain characters that were around in during The Second Age but unlike the original novels and The Simarillion (they don’t have access to The First Age material) showrunners will have to piece together a Middle-Earth series based on small tidbits and scraps instead of full novels as blueprints.

One key thing we do know is that Numenor will be featured, an advanced island kingdom in the West that is the Middle-Earth version of Atlantis that is eventually corrupted by Mairon aka Sauron (in his more beautiful form) leading to it’s doom because of their jealously of the immortality of the Elves. Sauron at this point is the former second in-command of the original Dark Lord, Melkor aka Morgoth, who was banished to the void before the start of The Second Age.

After stoking distrust of the Elves, Sauron eventually convinces Numenor to invade the Undying Lands leading to their fleet of ships to be destroyed along with the kingdom of Numenor returning to the water, an obvious nod to the Atlantis myth.

Other notable events in The Second Age include the creation of the Rings of Power by Sauron and Celebrimbor. An elf Prince of The Noldor, Celebrimbor was the ruler Eregion and was killed by Sauron after hiding the lesser rings. We’ve seen a version of this character covered in The Shadow of Mordor and The Shadow of War video games that had Celebrimbor as a playable character in the form of a wraith looking for revenge against Sauron.

I’d personally love to see Celebrimbor explored in the series.

Towards the end we see the fall of Sauron at The War of The Last Alliance at the hands of Isildur that was shown in the opening sequence in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Rings. I think it’ll be interesting to see if they would be willing to show Sauron’s perspective during his rise to power as he’s been mostly an ominous figure in previous live-action adaptations.

Some of those tidbits from The Second Age that could also show up in the new series could possibly see two wizards that really have only been briefly mentioned in passing show up. The Blue Wizards, Alatar aka Morinehtar (Darkness Slayer) and Pallando aka Rómestámo (East Helper), were according to Tolkien important unseen players in both The Second and The Third Ages as they helped to stir up rebellions against Sauron in the dark East.

The pair could be excellent replacements for Gandalf, who won’t be part of the show.

There are convincing fan theories that the duo after falling to evil of Sauron at some time in the Third Age could have been the evil force in J.R.R. Tolkien’s sequel to The Lord of The Rings titled The New Shadow (13 pages) taking place in a never fully realized Fourth Age where the world of man has forgotten Sauron. This isn’t hard to imagine given that Sauron was also Maia (like the five wizards) before becoming a minion of Margoth and taking his place as the second Dark Lord. Fellow wizard Saruman was eventually turned by Sauron and attempted his own power grab becoming a main villain for a good chunk of the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

The Fourth Age could be worth exploring at Amazon once they’ve finished-up with The Second Age as it would allow them return to Middle-Earth and explore something never fully developed by J.R.R. Tolkien given that they don’t have access to The First Age. Although, I’m not sure if that will actually happen and the Tolkien Estate could have a change of heart.

Men of The White Mountains could play a role in the latter part of the series as they were worshipers of Sauron that promised to aid Isildur in The War of The Last Alliance. They were cursed by Isildur after breaking their oath leading to them becoming the Army of The Dead aka Oathbreakers that were only released after helping Aragorn during The War of The Ring.

I’ve been hearing that Amazon will be deviating from the Peter Jackson films visually and we could be seeing different takes of characters/creatures we’ve previously seen in the six films. I’ll be very curious to see those changes and if fans will be all-in given for their love for what Peter Jackson accomplished.

We already know from Hugo Weaving that he’s not interested in reprising the Elrond role anytime soon, which would further suggest that we might not see any actors from the films who played elves return to their roles in the Amazon series despite those characters being around in The Second Age. Adding to the talk that the series won’t be as connected to the Peter Jackson films as originally thought and becoming it’s own take on Middle-Earth.

Posted on in Television News

Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series Has Just Resumed Filming In New Zealand – ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Begins Filming On Wednesday

Deadline has word that the New Zealand production of Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series has resumed and Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop heading towards a start on September 30th, both series had been shooting in Auckland.

Filming has just resumed in New Zealand on Amazon’s sprawling The Lord Of The Rings TV series, an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels, I have learned. Production on Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is slated to restart on Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the island country where Netflix’s Sweet Tooth has been shooting since Sept. 14, sources said. The three shows were among handful of Hollywood TV series and movies that were granted border exemptions by the New Zealand government in July to film in the country.

The Lord of The Rings series will take place during The Second Age of Middle-Earth, which means this will be thousands of years before the events of two feature film trilogies that took place in The Third Age. It’s cast includes Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, and Joseph Mawle.

The Second Age sees the rise of Sauron, who has replaced Melkor aka Morgoth as the new Dark Lord after Morgoth is banished to the void. During this time Sauron creates the rings of power and uses them to destroy multiple ancient kingdoms leading to the battle scene in the prologue sequence from Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring.

It’ll be interesting to see if we’ll end up seeing fair-faced version of Sauron and the origin of The Witch King, who might have been a Numenorean king of the ancient island kingdom. A key location that is going to be explored in the series.

Sadly, Amazon is tackling The Second Age because they don’t have access to The First Age, which is mostly covered in The Silmarillion and the History of Middle-Earth. This could lead to Amazon having to come up with a lot of that mythology on their own and filling blanks with the help of the Tolkien Estate. This series will likely be familiar to fans but will also likely be it’s own thing.

We are hearing they’ll be adding many familiar Middle-Earth creatures but remains to be seen if they’ll attempt to make the production design match the Peter Jackson films.

Deadline adding that writers have used the production pause to start writing Season 2 (previously confirmed) scripts which isn’t shocking it’s being planned as getting five seasons.

The writing team of the series, led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, used the time to map out and write Season 2 scripts.

Netflix had begun shooting the live-action Cowboy Bebop last fall and after a knee injury suffered by lead actor John Cho led to a hiatus in Auckland before the COVID-19 impacted global production. Resuming this week sounds is the first step for them to finally get this completed after a year of hiccups.

COWBOY BEOP – Based on the worldwide phenomenon from Sunrise Inc., Cowboy Bebop is the jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Radical Ed: a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals. They’ll even save the world…for the right price.

This news comes after James Cameron recently confirmed to Arnold Schwarzenegger that they’ve completed live-action filming on Avatar 2 and is 95% completed on Avatar 3. Those two massive sequels had been shooting at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand.

SOURCE: DEADLINE