Director Andy Serkis has indicated that The Hunt for Gollum will prioritize the practical filmmaking traditions that made Peter Jackson’s original Lord of the Rings trilogy legendary — a signal that, if true to his word, could mark a nice course correction for Middle-earth on screen.
According to early reports surrounding the production, Serkis has emphasized a return to on-location filming and practical effects work rather than the heavy reliance on CGI and LED Volume stages that infected The Hobbit trilogy and Amazon’s Rings of Power.
Andy Serkis at Comic-Con 2011. Photo: Gerald Geronimo / G155 Multimedia (CC BY 2.0)
Jackson’s trilogy grounded Tolkien’s world in physical reality: New Zealand locations that became the Shire and Rohan, forced perspective that made hobbits small, miniatures (“bigatures”) so detailed they fooled the eye, practical creature work that gave weight to orcs and cave trolls.
The Hobbit trilogy’s pivot to digital effects — the entirely CGI Azog, the weightless and goofy Goblin King, the much-criticized 48fps experiment — left many feeling that Middle-earth had become artificial (including me), a video game rather than a place. Rings of Power, despite its staggering budget, leans heavily on LED Volume technology (the same virtual production stages used in The Mandalorian). Impressive as the tech is, it easily contributes to the show’s curiously unreal atmosphere.
A return to practical, location-based filmmaking makes narrative sense. The Hunt for Gollum is a gritty story: Aragorn and the Rangers tracking a creature through the Dead Marshes, the borders of Mordor, the shadows of Mirkwood. It should feel earthy, tangible, dangerous. Not polished. Not digital.
This is a step in the right direction for The Hunt for Gollum. The film still seems a superfluous take in the greater story already told, and smacks of a money-grab from a corporate suit, but at least Serkis is taking the right approach in constructing the film outside of a digital environment.
