Gollum! We Hates Nasssty Copyright Lawyerss! Gollum!

by Glen Weldon

This Sunday, a fan-made prequel to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy will go live on the web. Two years in the making, The Hunt for Gollum was a labor of profoundly nerdy love for its British creators, who spent a reported $4,500 (£3,000) making the thing — and don't intend to make a single copper piece off of it. (Check Laura Sydell's report on the flick from last night's ATC.)

If the trailer's anything to go by, it'll be, at the very least, pretty to look at. The makeup and costuming seem mightily impressive. (The filmmakers saved on costs by sharing wardrobe with another Tolkien fan film called Born of Hope, which is still in the works).

Fan films, like fan fiction, have been around a long time, and most savvy filmmakers see them for what they are: potent emblems of the devotion their creations have inspired in a passionate few, not to mention a conveniently low-maintenance way to keep those creations alive in the public consciousness.

George Lucas, for example, now encourages fans to come play in his filmic sandbox by sponsoring a yearly fan film award.

But the Tolkien estate — and New Line, the studio behind the Peter Jackson films — have historically been quick on the draw with cease-and-desist letters. And there's a couple of things about this particular fan film that might draw the Eye of Sauron.

After the jump: A tale of two prequels ...

For one, the film's scenic and costume design are unmistakably Jacksonian. And as far as I can tell, its music, and its landscape porn — all those lingering flyover shots of mountains, fields and rivers — were snipped straight from the Jackson films. But even that's not necessarily enough to get the New Line copyright attorneys streaming out from Minas Morgul on their Fell Beasts.

Turns out you can get away with a lot under the Fair Use and parody exceptions, after all. And the fact that the filmmakers don't stand to make any money at all from the thing might keep the Dark Lord brooding on his dark throne in the land of Hollywood, where the shadows lie.

Nevertheless, there's a chance that this film will rouse Jackson, and New Line, from their reverie. That's because its story — Aragorn scouring Middle-Earth for traces of Gollum, to keep the creature from revealing the location of the One Ring — is likely one that Jackson intends to tell himself one day soon.

Jackson will shortly be producing The Hobbit, his own prequel to LOTR, to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro will also direct a second movie that will attempt to bridge The Hobbit's childlike sensibility with the darker tones of the main trilogy.

Del Toro has been cagey about what, exactly, that second film will be about, but he's hinted that he'll be looking to the saga's (many, voluminous) appendices for material. And if the goal is to really to link The Hobbit to The Fellowship of the Ring, it's hard, if not impossible, to to imagine that the hunt for Gollum won't be a major part of that second film.

Of course, Jackson may not be worried about getting his thunder stolen by what a bunch of fans playing dress-up managed to slap together in the woods for a few thousand quid.

On Sunday, we'll get to decide how worried he should be.