The Hunt For Gollum

I heard an interesting story on NPR today about a fan-made film called “The Hunt for Gollum.” The short HD film is a prequel to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and follows Aragorn (Adrian Webster, pictured) as he goes on a hunt for the creature known as Gollum. It is the result of the efforts of 150 unpaid volunteers, all movie enthusiasts and professionals, who cast uncanny look-alikes in the crucial roles…painstakingly recreated detailed costumes…and shot on location in the rocky landscape of North Wales. Overall, it is an immensely impressive effort.

The NPR story focused on the question of copyright, and whether such a high-quality production can be considered in violation of that copyright – even though the creators go through great pains to express that this is a not-for-profit film, available only online, and is meant to be a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson. I’m not sure why NPR chose to raise the question, especially considering there appears to be no official word from either New Line Cinema nor Peter Jackson. However, the question has been raised regardless, and they interviewed Fred von Lohman, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The article states:

Von Lohman says fans have always written their own stories based on TV shows and movies. That’s legal.

But a high-quality movie available over the Internet could change the game.

“Now the fans can reach a global audience immediately through the Internet and make it available in a global way,” von Lohman says.

Perhaps I don’t know law as well as I should, but I don’t see why the quality of a production nor the breadth of its audience would cause concern over whether the copyright is protected. If fan films are legal as long as they make no profit, and that is the established law, why should an excellently-made fan film suddenly be subject to prosecution? Are we to say that those who do the best they possibly can in an endeavor while reaching an audience as wide as possible are meant to be prosecuted, while those who make sub-standard attempts are allowed to go free? The law should not suddenly apply to the person who does their best, and not apply to someone whose is half-hearted in their effort.

Still, I doubt there is much to worry about. As I said, it appears that there’s no official word from the copyright holders that they look down upon this effort, nor does it appear that the production group (Independent Online Cinema) is being sued. More often than not, these tributes are even lauded by the copyright holders as excellent additions to the canon (in the case of Ernie Cline’s “Fanboys,” a movie about Star Wars fans and their humorous attempts to break into Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas himself gave his stamp of approval and even offered the use of original Star Wars sound effects for the production).

If I were Peter Jackson, I believe I would be flattered at this effort to adopt my style in order to expand on Tolkien’s story, and I would likely be scouting the production for new talent that I could use in my next production.

“The Hunt For Gollum” is being broadcast online at http://www.thehuntforgollum.com on Sunday, May 3rd. You can view the trailer here: