| The Hunt for Gollum | |
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| Directed by | Chris Bouchard |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Narrated by | Patrick O'Connor |
| Cinematography |
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| Edited by | Lewis Albrow |
| Music by |
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Production companies | Rickety Shack Films Independent Online Cinema |
| Distributed by | Independent Online Cinema |
Release date |
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Running time | 38 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | less than £3,000 (less than US$5,000) |
The Hunt for Gollum is a 2009 Britishfantasyfan film directed, co-written, co-produced, and co-scored byChris Bouchard. Based on the appendices ofJ. R. R. Tolkien's 1954–55 bookThe Lord of the Rings, the film is set inMiddle-earth, when the wizardGandalf the Grey fears thatGollum may reveal information about theOne Ring toSauron. Gandalf sends the rangerAragorn on a quest to find Gollum.[a]
Filming took place inNorth Wales,Epping Forest, andHampstead Heath. The film was shot inhigh definition video, with a budget of £3,000 (equivalent to £5,083 in 2023[2] or US$5,000, equivalent to $7,328 in 2024[3]). The production is completely unofficial and unauthorized, though Bouchard said he had "reached an understanding" withTolkien Enterprises in 2009.
The Hunt for Gollum debuted at theSci-Fi-London film festival and on the Internet, free to view, on 3 May 2009. By 20 October 2009, it had been viewed by 5 million people. Viewings had risen to over 14 million by 2025.
The film is set during the timespan ofThe Fellowship of the Ring. It takes place 17 years afterBilbo Baggins's 111th birthday party and just beforeFrodo Baggins leaves theShire forRivendell (an interval not outlined in Jackson'sfilm of that story). The wizardGandalf fears thatGollum may reveal information about theOne Ring to theDark LordSauron, and sends the RangerAragorn, heir ofIsildur, on a quest to find him.
The story opens with a brief prologue about the ring's disappearance before cutting to Aragorn and Gandalf at an inn (presumably thePrancing Pony) inBree. Gandalf explains his concerns about Gollum's knowledge of the Ring falling into enemy hands, and asks Aragorn to find the creature with his tracking skills. After initially having little luck, Aragorn crosses paths with a distant kinsman named Arithir, a fellowRanger of the North, who reports hearing rumours about a creature that has been stealing fish from open windows in local villages; the movie cuts to a scene of Gollum doing just that, and eating his ill-gotten gain atop the roof.
Aragorn and Arithir part ways, and Aragorn encounters and kills a pair oforc scouts in the forest. He soon locates Gollum by a fish pond afterwards and captures the creature in asnare trap. Having secured the whining and protesting Gollum inside a sack, Aragorn sets out forMirkwood. On the way, he briefly spots one of the nineRingwraiths in the woods, but avoids it. Later that same day, he is attacked by an orcsquad and defeats them, but is hit by a poison dart which takes effect after he dispatches his last attacker. He collapses beside a patch of Athelas flowers and has avision ofArwen (Rita Ramnani) inRivendell.
Aragorn regains consciousness at dusk and discovers that Gollum has escaped from the sack. He seeks the creature well into the night, but finally finds him hiding up in a tree. Gollum fearfully explains that a Ringwraith is coming — seconds later, a Ringwraith indeed does appear and attacks Aragorn. After a short but intense duel, the Ringwraith flees from a bright light created by theElves of Mirkwood, who recapture Gollum and guide Aragorn back to their fortress.
The scene cuts to Gandalf emerging from Mirkwood's dungeons after interrogating Gollum. Gandalf tells Aragorn that Gollum knows ofBilbo Baggins andthe Shire, and explains that he must now go there to warn Frodo. Aragorn suggests sending Frodo to meet him in Bree, and Gandalf readily agrees. The film ends with Gollum speaking to himself in the dungeon, where he vows to kill "Bagginses" and reclaim his "Precious".
The screenplay was written byChris Bouchard with Stuart Price and Lewis Albrow.[9] Rickety Shack Films and Independent Online Cinema handled the production.[9] It was unclear whether the production violated the rights held by theTolkien Estate andNew Line Cinema.Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with theElectronic Frontier Foundation, toldNational Public Radio that the high quality of the film and its global reach via the internet could potentially create legal issues.[5] Chris Bouchard stated "We got in touch withTolkien Enterprises and reached an understanding with them that as long as we are completely non-profit then we're okay. We have to be careful not to disrespect their ownership of theintellectual property. They are supportive of the way fans wish to express their enthusiasm."[4]
"Bringing Gollum himself to life has been a major challenge, I really didn't want to cop out and knew that seeing Gollum would be an important part of the film. We have used just about every trick in the book to portray Gollum on screen without the full power ofWeta Digital behind us!"
John-Paul Frazer, Gareth Brough, Mike Ritchie, Neill Phillips, Stein Stie, and Chris Child served as the cinematographers.[9]The Hunt for Gollum had a shooting budget of less than £3,000,[11] spent entirely, according to Bouchard, on costumes, equipment, food, and props.[12] Location filming took place inNorth Wales,Epping Forest andHampstead Heath.[4] 160 people volunteered as crew members for the production.[4] The film was produced by Chris Bouchard, assisted by Brian Lavery, Julianne Honey-Mennal, Gladys San Juan, and Spencer Duru.[9] The production design was based onPeter Jackson'sLord of the Rings films. The director and screenwriter Chris Bouchard said, "Peter Jackson's individual look was a big inspiration, it's been an adventure for us to play in that world that he created."[4] Additional writing was by Sabina Sattar, Julianne Honey-Mennal, and Stuart Price.[9] The fight scenes were "a huge technical challenge".[13]
Thevisual effects crew was headed by Adam Thomas while Maciej Kuciara supervised the Digital Matte works.[9] Alban Kasikci, Brett Frame, Daren Horley, Dennis Fraser, Corey Butler, Guillaume Benamout, Ismail Kemal Ciftcioglu, Joe Kormendi, Hesam Bani-Eghbal, Kaustav Sinha, Michael James, Nick Marshall, Tiberius Viris and Vladimir Teneslav were thematte painters. With almost 160 people down the crew list the film crew had 60 on visual effects shots for the film over the internet.[14]
Thesound mix was completed at the Futureworks studio inManchester.[15] The composers forThe Hunt for Gollum were Adam Langston, Andrew Skrabutenas and Chris Bouchard.[9] The soundtrack has never been released on CD. The soundtrack was released for freemusic download.
The Hunt for Gollum debuted at theSci-Fi-London film festival and on the Internet, free to view, on 3 May 2009.[4][16] By 20 October 2009, it had been viewed by 10 million people.[17] Bouchard states it had had over 15 million views by 2020.[18]
On 10 May 2024, the film was briefly blocked onYouTube whenWarner Bros. mistakenly filed a copyright strike request after announcing their own upcomingAndy Serkis-helmed film of the sameworking title.[19][20]
TheBalticon Film Festival for amateur short films awardedThe Hunt for Gollum their Best Live Action award in 2009.[21]
The film had 3 million views in the first 3 months of release and was well received. It was generally praised for being one of the best made fan films available on the internet. Shortly after its May 2009 release, it became the "fourth most watched release in the US in terms of viewing numbers".[17]
The trailer for the film was well received online.Entertainment Weekly thought the film looked wonderful, and that the filmmakers had succeeded in making a low-budget version of the visuals ofPeter Jackson's movie.[6]Wired News said that "The Hunt for Gollum looked exceptional for a fan film.[22]Wired added that fan films often display both zeal and amateurishness, but that the "passionate amateurs" onThe Hunt for Gollum had created "something special".[23] OnNational Public Radio'sAll Things Considered,Laura Sydell said that the film had the same look as theHollywood version, with flawless special effects.[5]Rotten Tomatoes wrote that the trailers made it look better than professionally-produced movies likeEragon orKrull".[24]
The Tolkien scholarRobin Anne Reid wrote that "The consensus seems to be that the film is atypical of fan productions because of its professional production values", calling it a "hybrid fan/pro film".[25] The scholar of media Nico Meissner calledThe Hunt for Gollum one of the first major successes for Internet film distribution, given that it was viewed by more than 12 million people. He ascribed this to the way the film was made and publicized to build an audience,[26] usingopinion leaders to spread the word about the film.[27]
Best Live Action: The Hunt for Gollum — Chris Bouchard, director
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