15 years ago, the YouTube channel Independent Online Cinema published a The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) fan film titled The Hunt for Gollum. Since 2009, that LOTR The fan film has achieved 13,684,715 views. A pretty impressive figure! And judging by the buzz online, plenty lord of the rings fans really enjoyed it. However, since the announcement of The novelty of Warner Bros The Lord of the Rings movie, The Hunt for GollumYouTube has removed the fan film. A message on the movie page notes: “This video contains content from Warner Bros. Entertainment, which has blocked it for copyright reasons.”
It seems like a truly unfortunate confluence of events. Warner Bros. it can't really fail The Hunt for Gollum fan film from 15 years ago to have a similar name to the new The Lord of the Rings movie. Hopefully, this withdrawal from Warner Bros. it was more of an automatic algorithmic effort than anything purposeful.
The creators of 2009 The Hunt for Gollum have shared a statement about the withdrawal of their The Lord of the Rings fan film They both seem very excited for a new film and are looking forward to their film returning to YouTube, sharing: “We are all very excited about the announcement of The Warner Bros making an adaptation of The Hunt for Gollum with Andy Serkis and Peter Jackson!… [It] It looks like our short has been blocked from YouTube, hopefully temporarily; we're asking if it can be reinstated as it's clearly a non-profit tribute/fan effort.”
The makers add that deep and fanatical love fueled the making of their film. And note: “We were so inspired by how they envisioned Middle Earth (and Gollum) that we spent 2 years making our micro-budget film version as a labor of love.” That feels clear!
If Warner Bros. if he was smart, they would both be reinstated The Hunt for Gollum fan film on YouTube and support its creators The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. This would bring a lot of joy to the fans. Fingers crossed for a lovely/happy ending.
