The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

[Snowdog]

There is credible mentions that Warner Brothers made War of the Rohirrim as a $30 million charge to keep the right.... you know... the ten year rule. it has been ten + years since the last Hobbit movie, and they had to get started on this before ten years were up or chance losing the rights.

[Eldy]

Yeah, I saw the same thing mentioned by Variety, which is a pretty reputable source for this kind of news.

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/box- ... 236243923/

Box office riches weren’t necessarily the impetus for “War of the Rohirrim” getting the greenlight. The movie was developed and fast-tracked to ensure that New Line Cinema didn’t lose the film adaptation rights for Tolkien’s novels while Jackson and the teams behind the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies were working on two new live-action films for 2026 and beyond. The first of those movies, tentatively titled “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” will be directed by and star Andy Serkis.

[Alatar]

I really don't have a problem with that? Its not like they released a half assed direct to TV quality movie. Its a $30 million dollar budget with WETA visual and sound design. Adapted by Philippa Boyens and backed by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. Also, it took 3 years. While that may qualify as "fast tracked" for media purposes, its worth mentioning that "Arcane: League of Legends" was produced n the same time frame at a budget of €250million dollars for 18 x 40 min episodes.

Not passing judgement on the movie either way (I haven't seen it yet) but just pointing out the facts.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't even understand why that would be a problem.

[Eldy]

I don't see it as a problem — actually, I suspect that being a disposable (and cheap!) film made primarily to keep the rights is why they were willing to go with a fairly out-of-left-field premise set centuries before LOTR proper, featuring no recognisable characters aside from a single shot of Saruman at the very end (though Helm at least has name recognition, which is more than you could say for e.g. Eärnur of Gondor). Despite my reservations with WotR, I'm glad there was an official Middle-earth movie that went off the beaten path like this, and I hope there will be others like it someday (though I suspect spin-offs centred on already popular characters will be more common).

[Snowdog]

I don't even understand why that would be a problem.

I don't see it as a problem other than Warner Brothers keeping the franchise bound to Peter Jackson.
I didn't expect a whole lot from this movie really, and what I got from it was a reasonably enjoyable one-off. I doubt I'll see it again unless it is released on DVD and I find it at a price-point I deem acceptable. It has its place along side the Bakshi LotR, and the Rankin Bass cartoons, and above the three PJ Hobbit bloats.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't even understand why that would be a problem.

I don't see it as a problem other than Warner Brothers keeping the franchise bound to Peter Jackson.

To the extent that I don't believe in capitalism as a social/economic system, I agree with you. But once one accepts that capitalism is the social/economic system currently operating in our society, I think it needs to be acknowledged that failing to preserve the rights to make adaptations roughly based on The Lord of the Rings (and, to a lesser extent, The Hobbit), would be just plain bad business.

And to be clear, my understanding of the rights and licensing instruments is that WB only had to have the film "in production" within the requisite time period. So to the extent that they "cut corners" with the animation or otherwise (which I have heard, but cannot comment on), that would have nothing to do with preserving their licensing rights.

[Frelga]

Personally, I'd like the franchise out of PJ's hands. I appreciated what the ROP did with their very sparce source material, and I would love to see what that or another fresh team could do. Maybe even another Hobbit movie, because the PJ trilogy was a mess, imo.

But we can't have nice things, can we.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Other than having his name attached to it for marketing purposes, I don't think Jackson had much to do with this film. He is not the director and he is not among the 8 people (including Tolkien) who have writing credits. Philippa Boyens isn't but Fran Walsh isn't so I really doubt Jackson had much input at all.

[Frelga]

Yes, but he will produce the Hunt for Gollum, or whatever it will end up being called.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And the other two movies as well. But that may not be a bad thing. It remains to be seen.

[Eldy]

‘Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim’ Heading Into Homes After 14-Day Theatrical Window - Deadline

Well, that was fast. New Line Cinema’s anime feature The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which opened on Dec. 13 to a very low $4.5M, will be available on digital in home on Dec. 27, repping a 14-day theatrical window.

War of the Rohirrim will be available on all participating digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, and more. Note, just because the movie is available in home, doesn’t mean it won’t continue to play in theaters. That said, there’s a competition this Christmas with Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Mufasa, Wicked and Moana 2, and it will be very hard to hold screens on a movie that didn’t perform well.

I don't know if any Halofirians were holding out to watch WotR at home or if it's totally off everyone's radar by now, but just in case, that'll be an option sooner than anticipated. I can't say I was expecting the film to get pulled this fast, even with it underperforming, but I suppose it's served its purpose in WB's eyes now.

[Alatar]

I'm pretty annoyed about it TBH. I wanted to see it on the Big Screen. It never came to my town at all and the nearest screen showing it 15 miles away was finished at Christmas. Some of us are busy in the run up to Christmas FFS!

Also, streaming not available here yet, which means I'll probably end up downloading. So they get no money from me instead of at least a Cinema ticket and probably a Stream or two. Bad business.

[Frelga]

On consideration, I realized that nothing about it appeals to me except a connection to Tolkien. Maybe if I completely run out of things to watch, I'll stream it.

[Inanna]

It was running close to my place, but given that I wasn’t even able to sit through 8 mins of that “trailer”, it’s a non existent thing for me.

[Alatar]

I watched it last night. Enjoyed it, but nothing amazing. The Watcher in the Water scene was stupid, most of the rest of it I enjoyed. As others have mentioned, the scenery and sound design was excellent, as was the music. The character animation was more uneven as were some of the "invented lore" bits. Nice to see and hear Saruman again. Actually one of my favourite moments was in the first few minutes when they transitioned from a map, to a semi 3d map to a full CG landscape.

Honestly I think any Tolkien fan should watch it. Its stronger than the Rankin Bass and Bakshi efforts, and far more enjoyable than the bloated mess of the Hobbit trilogy. It just can't and doesn't measure up to PJ's LotR. Probably living in the same space as Rings of Power. Some lovely moments sandwiched by stupidity.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks, Al. That is a helpful review. I'm sure that I will watch it eventually, and I would guess I will have a somewhat similar view of it.

[Eldy]

It's good to hear your thoughts on WotR, Al! I agree about the map shot at the beginning. I actually can't recall at this point (eight or nine years since I last saw the trilogy) whether there were any direct map-to-landscape fade-in shots in the PJ films, but in any event, this one being animated allowed for a more dynamic way of making such a transition.

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ETA: Having rewatched a couple scenes on YouTube, I think what I was half-recalling was the moment in the Extended Edition of Fellowship where the prologue segues into "Concerning Hobbits" with a fade from a landscape shot of the Misty Mountains to a close-up of a map depicting them. So, the reverse of how WotR does it, but yeah. Neat to see something similar that takes advantage of the medium of animation.

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