Aragorn To Be Recast for Hunt for Gollum

The Hunt for Gollum director Andy Serkis has confirmed that Aragorn will be recast for the movie. Viggo Mortensen will not be returning. Serkis told ScreenRant "I don't know what's out there at the moment, but I know there's a lot of speculation, but let's just say we are recasting the role and we are on the way to finding someone."

My guess is the decision is for practical reasons as the time setting for the film is between the two Lord of the Ring trilogies and kind of in between minutes of Fellowship of the Ring. Mortensen is now 67 so playing Aragorn as he looked then would be a bit of a challenge with the passage of 25 years. Makeup can only do so much. They could use de-aging technology but it still has uncanny valley issues and suspect the character is in the film a lot so would also blow up the budget. I am curious if they offered Viggo a chance to return and he declined..

The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past Movie Announced

Sir Peter Jackson and Stephen Colbert (yep the late night host) revealed that they are working on a new movie. Currently called "The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past" will be written by Colbert, Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Boyens as producers. Currently no director but there isn't a script yet and so no release date.

In the video below making the announcement, Colbert said "You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me, but the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in the Fellowship that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day."

The chapters Colbert is referring to is In The Fellowship of the Rings

Kate Winslet Joins The Hunt For Gollum

Things have been quiet news wise for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum but that may change as the film is heading forwards a production start in New Zealand for the summer.

Deadline is reporting that Kate Winslet has signed on to be the female lead in the movie. No other details about the role were provided. The filming is expected to take place from May to October with actress and her family enjoying New Zealand for the duration. She will join confirmed cast members Elijah Woods (Frodo), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), and Hunt for Gollum director Andy Serkis (Gollum).

The film is produced by Peter Jackson who gave Winslet her big break with his movie Heavenly Creatures in 1994. Lord of the Rings writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh also co-write the script with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou. 

The story bridges the gap early in The Fellowship of the Ring when Gandalf confronted Bilbo about the ring and gave it to Frodo before leaving to perform research and his return when he was convinced it was the One Ring and needed Frodo to help him verify in the fire. Movie wise, that gap was about five minutes but book wise it was nearly 20 years. I am sure the movie do the same tricks the trilogy did for the passage of time but shows there is a lot of story they can tell, very little of which of which is in any of Middle-Earth books.