MOVIE NEWS – Warner Bros. will release the first of its new live-action Lord of the Rings films in 2026, focusing on Andy Serkis’ Gollum.
Original Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson and partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing the film and “will be involved every step of the way,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said during Thursday’s earnings call.
The project, created by Walsh and Boyens and screenwriters Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, is currently in the early stages of script development and will “explore storylines yet to be told,” Zaslav continued.
In a press release issued by Warner Bros. on Thursday morning, the studio revealed that the film’s working title is “The Lord of The Rings: The Hunt for Gollum”. Andy Serkis will direct it, and of course, he will also reprise his iconic title role. The film will be executive produced by Ken Kamins, Alongside Serkis and The Imaginarium’s Jonathan Cavendish, the premiere is currently slated for 2026, but that could change.
Warner Bros. first announced in February 2023 that then-newly installed studio heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy had struck a deal to make “multiple” films in the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien universe. The projects will be developed through WB’s New Line Cinema.
Freemode, a division of the Embracer Group, has signed a contract for the adaptation rights for the books “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”, among others, in the framework of a company called Middle-earth Enterprises.
A separate animated Middle-earth film, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” is also in the works. Directed by Kenji Kamiyama, it is scheduled to be released on December 13. The film takes place 200 years before the events of “The Hobbit.”
“Yesssss, Precious,” Serkis said. “The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth Peter, Fran and Philippa. With Mike and Pam, and the Warner Bros team on the quest as well, alongside WETA and our filmmaking family in New Zealand, it’s just all too delicious…”.
We will see if the team succeeds in repeating the success of the former trilogy. It is certain that enthusiasm, knowledge and experience will not be lacking now either…
