The Annecy International Animated Film Festival hosted a panel for the new Lord of the Rings animated movie, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Moderated by Andy Serkis, director Kenji Kamiyama was on hand to present a 20 minute preview. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were confirmed to be the film’s executive producers.
Animated Lord of the Rings adaptations have come a long way since the days of 1977’s Rankin-Bass Hobbit and 1980’s Return of the King. It was largely thanks to Peter Jackson’s big budget Lord of the Rings Trilogy (beginning with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001) that Lord of the Rings-related movies became viable again. Jackson has had so much influence on Tolkien’s work that it seems any current Lord of the Rings project, from Amazon Prime’s Rings of Power series to the upcoming The Hunt for Gollum, has incorporated elements that originated with Jackson’s films.
The War of the Rohirrim is based on the work of author J.R.R. Tolkien. The fortress of 
Helm’s Deep was a pivotal location in The Lord of the Rings, but Tolkien only revealed its history in one of the appendices in Return of the King (originally published in 1955). The movie will take place in the year 2758, 183 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings begin. It will tell the tale of Rohan being invaded by Dunlendings and the response of Rohan’s king, Helm Hammerhand. The movie will focus on Hammerhand’s daughter, who Tolkien never named but is now called Hèra (voiced by Gaia Wise).
Veterans of the Peter Jackson films will be involved in this movie. While Andy Serkis, voice and motion capture actor of Gollum, isn’t a part of the film, he was present at Annecy to moderate the panel. Miranda Otto, Éowyn from the Jackson Trilogy, will reprise her role to narrate the film. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who directed, wrote, and produced the 00’s trilogy, are executive producers for The War of the Rohirrim.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be a bit of a diversion from recent Lord of the Rings projects. It’ll be both animated and theatrically released. Warner Bros. Animation turned to Japanese director Kenji Kamiyama, whose previous work includes Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 the Last Human and Blade Runner: Black Lotus, to direct the film. It is being produced by Sola Entertainment, which is headquartered in Tokyo.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which stars Gaia Wise, Brian Cox, and Luke Pasquialino, will be released in theatres worldwide from Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema on December 13th.
