The latest Lord of the Rings installment, The War of the Rohirrim, has just confirmed the original franchise helmer Peter Jackson's involvement in making the animated feature.
The feature film is set in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth with New Line Cinema producing the prequel alongside Warner Bros. Animation, joined by Japanese studio Sola Entertainment for the animation of the flick.
The Lord of the Rings Anime Feature Confirms Peter Jackson's Involvement
On Tuesday, June 11, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit's Oscar-winning producer Philippa Boyens revealed at the Annecy Animation Festival that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are serving as executive producers on the animated feature, Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
The new feature film was created by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Eden of the East) while working with original franchise helmer Jackson and screenplay writer Walsh.
Although Jackson was not present in Annecy, a short video of him was presented to introduce The War of the Rohirrim, while playing a skit of being 'interrupted' by Gollum in his segment, with Andy Serkis performing his Gollum voice in the process.
"We did not want to make an animated version of a Peter Jackson film," EP Jason DeMarco said at the panel. "We wanted to make a Kenji Kamiyama animated feature film that lives within that world," which he admitted was a "difficult task" that required balancing "two types of filmmaking that haven't collided like this before."
Boyens added that the prequel feature would work better in anime format "because it's so character-based and also contained within its own world" that it would "work really well with Japanese storytelling."
What The War of the Rohirrim is All About
Set nearly 200 years before Bilbo Baggins finds the ring of power, The War of the Rohirrim centers on the King of Rohan (voiced by Brian Cox) and his strong-willed daughter, Princess Héra (voiced by Gaia Wise).
Wise shared that the prequel animation's heroine is more akin to the ones in Hayao Miyazaki's films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind than the characters in the original film franchise.
In her own words, "[Héra] would lay down her life for her people," she said, "Comparing her to Arwen and Eowyn, they're already fully formed women. What I loved about Héra is she's fierce, she's complex, she's rebellious."
The prequel lets the princess meet her match with the film's antagonist, Wulf (voiced by Luke Pasqualino) who would lead the armies of Dunlendings against Helm's kingdom.
Contrary to common antagonists in the franchise, Wulf is not an evil wizard or dark lord, but a mere human being, which makes him even more dangerous.
Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be released internationally beginning on December 13, 2024.
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