Warner Bros. will release the first of its new batch of live-action “The Lord of the Rings” films in 2026, which will focus on Andy Serkis’ Gollum.
Original “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing the movie and “will be involved every step of the way,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said during an earnings call on Thursday.
The project is currently in the early stages of script development from writers Walsh and Boyens, along with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, and will “explore storylines yet to be told,” Zaslav said.
The working title for the movie, which will be directed by and feature Serkis in his renowned title role, is “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” Warner Bros. announced in a press release later on Thursday morning. Ken Kamins, Serkis, and Jonathan Cavendish of The Imaginarium will serve as executive producers for the movie.
Warner Bros. first said in February 2023 that Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, the then-newly appointed studio directors, had arranged a deal to produce “multiple” movies based on the well-known J.R.R. Tolkien novels. New Line Cinema, a label owned by the WB, will develop the projects. Under a company called Middle-earth Enterprises, Freemode, a branch of Embracer Group, negotiated the adaptive rights to several works, including “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.”
