Warner Bros. in collaboration with New Line Cinema will bring an anime feature film based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the studio announced on Friday. It will be helmed by Ultraman manga series’ director Kenji Kamiyama.
Titled The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, the anime will be an untold story behind the fortress of Helm’s Deep, delving into the life and bloodsoaked times of one of Middle-earth’s most legendary figures; the mighty King of Rohan – Helm Hammerhand, read a Warner Bros statement.
New Line Cinema earlier created the trilogy based on author JRR Tolkein’s books by the same name, as well as The Hobbit films.
Warner Bros. Pictures will be distributing the anime film worldwide.
In a joint statement, Carolyn Blackwood, chief operating officer, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, and Richard Brener, president and chief creative officer, New Line Cinema, stated: “All of us at New Line feel a deep affinity for the extraordinary world JRR Tolkien created, so the opportunity to dive back into Middle-earth with the team at Warner Bros. Animation is a dream come true. Fans know Helm’s Deep as the stage for one of the greatest battles ever put to film and, with many of the same creative visionaries involved and the brilliant Kenji Kamiyama at the helm, we couldn’t be more excited to deliver a fresh vision of its history that will invite global audiences to experience the rich, complex saga of Middle-earth in a thrilling new way.”
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The fantasy fiction based on Middle-earth that set the stage for the epic trilogies, will be produced by Joseph Chou with Jeffrey Addiss. While Will Matthews will be penning the screenplay, Oscar-winner Philippa Boyens, from the screenwriting team behind The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, will be a consultant on the project.
The animation work will be done by Sola Entertainment. Voice casting for the project is underway.
The first book in The Lord of the Rings series was published in 1954. It has been adapted into six films so far, including three films on The Hobbit, with the third film in the LOTR trilogy, The Return of the King, winning 11 Oscars including for Best Picture in 2003.
Apart from this project which is being made for the big-screen, as per the statement, Amazon Studios is adapting the texts for a spin-off series for television, approximately worth $500 million.