15 years ago, the YouTube channel Independent Online Cinema put out a The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) fan film titled The Hunt for Gollum. Since 2009, this LOTR fan film has garnered 13,684,715 views. A fairly impressive number! And judging by online buzz, many Lord of the Rings fans really enjoyed it. However, since the announcement of Warner Bros.’s new The Lord of the Rings movie, The Hunt for Gollum, YouTube has removed the fan film. A message on the movie’s page notes, “This video contains content from Warner Bros. Entertainment, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.”
This seems like a truly unfortunate confluence of events. Warner Bros. cannot truly fault The Hunt for Gollum fan film from 15 years ago for having a similar name to the new The Lord of the Rings movie. Hopefully, this Warner Bros. takedown was more of an automatic algorithmic effort than anything purposeful.
The creators of 2009’s The Hunt For Gollum have shared a statement about the takedown of their The Lord of the Rings fan film. They seem both very excited for a new film and hopeful their movie will return to YouTube, sharing, “We’re all pretty excited here about The Warner Bros announcement making an adaptation of The Hunt for Gollum with Andy Serkis & Peter Jackson!… [It] seems our short got blocked from YouTube, hope temporarily—we’re enquiring in case it can be reinstated as it’s clearly a non profit homage/fan effort.”
The creators add that deep, fannish love drove the making of their film. And note, “We were so inspired by how they imagined Middle-earth (and Gollum) that we spent 2 years making our micro budget film version as a labour of love.” That much feels clear!
If Warner Bros. were smart, it would both reinstate The Hunt for Gollum fan film on YouTube and bring its creators in to help with The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. That would bring much joy to fans. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for a precious/happy ending.