Adrian Webster as Aragorn in 'The Hunt for Gollum'

Early this week the amazing not-for-profit Lord of the Rings inspired fan film The Hunt For Gollum was launched online.  Before it launched Director and Executive Producer Chris Bouchard didn’t know what to expect and wondered if the film would be very popular.  He had his answer within 24 hours after the film had been viewed a whopping 250,000 times causing such demand on the servers streaming the free online movie that they crashed.

Bouchard explained to Sci Fi Wire, “The Web server got completely overwhelmed by all the traffic. We got it back online quite late that night. I think everybody saw the release and went on at the same time. It was the number of requests it couldn’t handle. It’s quite cool! We had no idea how many people would watch it.”

Since its release the overwhelming response has been positive.  And so it should be – the film was made with more love than money, by fans rather than investors, for fans rather than customers.  In fact, the whole production was completed for only £3000 which is quite unbelievable once you see the movie.  Whilst the film runs for only 38 minutes we have no issue in suggesting it is superior in many respects to a lot of big budget mainstream movies.

The Hunt for Gollum is a story that Bouchard adapted from an incident mentioned in J.R.R. Tolkien’s original Rings trilogy. “All the story is in the appendices, and it’s referred to by Gandalf during the first book,” Bouchard said. “That’s a very basic structure of the story, which says Aragorn went to look for Gollum, and he found him, so we filled in the detail.”

As to the film’s positive reception, Bouchard said, “I was shocked, actually, because I was expecting a lot of stick for interpretations. We thought maybe the actors, they’ve got a lot to live up against trying to play [roles played by] Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen. On the whole, the comments from people who’ve watched it so far have been really nice. We’ve definitely had some good nitpicks as well, but we’re quite surprised they’ve been so nice.”

Nitpicks?  Honestly, anyone who wants to offer any criticism at all should take a long hard look at themselves.  The Hunt for Gollum is a superb short-film and is simply amazing considering the background behind its production.  It is a fan film that is every bit deserving of the overwhelming positive response it has received.

If you haven’t seen the film yet you can watch it here or you can visit the Hunt For Gollum Official Website to see it in High Definition.

Source: Sci Fi Wire

The amazing non-profit 40-minute Lord of the Rings inspired fan film The Hunt For Gollum has been launched online, you can watch it for free now:

How impressive is this movie!  We can’t say enough about how this movie has blown us away, especially in light of the fact that it was made with only £3000!

Director Chris Bouchard told SFX magazine: “Above all I was so inspired by Peter Jackson’s trilogy – and jealous that he got to make it first! I loved the scale, the quality, the epic scope of it all and figured, hey, maybe we can do that too. We don’t have millions of dollars of funding (our budget is less than £3000) but we do have a huge love for the subject, a growing number of talented volunteers behind us and above all the determination to make it happen to a high standard of professionalism.”

It goes to show what a little bit of cash and a lot of love can do.

You can also watch the movie in High Definition at the Hunt For Gollum Official Website.

Here is the second amazing trailer for the Lord of the Rings inspired 40-minute fan film The Hunt For Gollum.

The Hunt For Gollum Trailer #2

The premiere of The Hunt For Gollum will take place at Sci-Fi-London festival on May 3rd 2009.  The film will be screened for free to the public and festival goers but tickets are limited.  If you want them, reserve yours for free through Sci-Fi-London.

If you can’t make it don’t worry – it will also be released online for free.

See our article ‘The Hunt for Gollum Will Do Wonders For Independent Cinema‘ to watch the first trailer and learn more about this impressive production.

Also visit the Official Hunt For Gollum Website.

Adrian Webster as Aragorn/Strider

Here is an amazing trailer for a new 40 minute film inspired by Lord of the Rings.  The Hunt for Gollum is a fan film based upon the appendices of JRR Tolkien’s epic novels – and judging by the production releases so far, it’s going to be awesome.  What is particular impressive is that despite the fact that the film has been put together on a minuscule budget of less than £3000 it looks better than half the big budget movies we are forced to endure.

When interviewed by SFX Magazine, Director Chris Bouchard stated he was inspired by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: “Above all I was so inspired by Peter Jackson’s trilogy – and jealous that he got to make it first! I loved the scale, the quality, the epic scope of it all and figured, hey, maybe we can do that too. We don’t have millions of dollars of funding (our budget is less than £3000) but we do have a huge love for the subject, a growing number of talented volunteers behind us and above all the determination to make it happen to a high standard of professionalism.”  Read the full interview here.

In Peter Jackson’s trilogy Aragorn/Strider was played brilliantly by Viggo Mortensen, a role actor Adrian Webster has taken on for Bouchard’s film.  In an interview with SFX Webster has wet fans appetite with his comments regarding the action sequences.  “Fantasy films are certainly unusual for independent cinema; unfortunately with low budgets it’s generally not possible. I’m glad to say that with good locations, costumes and CGI it’s looking great so far.  I don’t want to spoil it for the fans but I’m very excited about the incredible action sequence in the movie, when Strider is confronted by a hoard of Orcs. It’s great to do months of training, learning techniques with the sword and running through fight choreography in the studio. You can’t do a LOTR fan film without some bone-crunching Orc action and I’m glad to say we have it!”
Read the full interview by SFX here.

Judging by the trailer and the official website I think this is going to be fantastic.  It looks highly professional and spells great things for the future of fan made films, independent cinema, and of course internet based media.  I can’t wait to see it.

The Hunt for Gollum is scheduled for online release on May 3rd at www.thehuntforgollum.com.