New Line Cinema is fast-tracking a Lord of the Rings anime film titled, “War of the Rohirrim”. While Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will not be working on this project, screenwriter Philippa Boyens (who won an Academy Award along with Jackson and Walsh for Return of the King) is attached as a consultant on this project. According to Deadline.com:
The War of the Rohirrim focuses on a character from the book’s appendix, the mighty King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand, and a legendary battle which helped shaped Middle-earth heading into LOTR. The anime pic will expand the untold story behind the fortress of Helm’s Deep, delving into the life and bloodsoaked times of Hammerhand. Overall, the movie is a companion piece to New Line’s LOTR trilogy and is set roughly 250 years before that movie during the third age
The film will be directed by Kenji Kamiyama, noted for his work on the anime TV series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. No release date has been announced.
This film has no relationship with the new Amazon TV series–though, like the new Amazon show, there isn’t much detail from Tolkien’s writings to create a story that can truly be called Tolkien’s own (maybe a few pages in total). Consider it a multi-million dollar piece of amateur fan-fiction, and you won’t be disappointed.
