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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Film Confirms Executive Producer Peter Jackson, Runtime (Updated)
posted on by Anita Tai
Warner Bros. Animation, New Line Cinema, and Sola Entertainment confirmed at the Annecy Animation Festival on Tuesday that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are serving as executive producers on The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, the new feature film by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Eden of the East). Jackson directed and co-wrote the earlier live-action flm trilogies for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit stories, and Walsh co-wrote their screenplays.
Screenthrill reports the anime film will have a runtime of 2 hours and 30 minutes and posted stills from the film:
Kamiyama also shared details of the story with Entertainment Weekly, calling it "the story of the most powerful king in Rohan's history." The director hoped to answer questions regarding the end of his lineage, the responsibility and hubris that comes with power, as well as the reality of war.
The film's story draws inspiration from and expands upon a brief section of J.R.R. Tolkien's appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
The film's staff gave these new details about the production at a screening of its first 20 minutes.
This year's Annecy takes place from June 9 to June 15 in the French town of the same name. Established in 1960, Annecy is the world's oldest and largest animation film festival.
While the staff also previewed the film last year at Annecy, that earlier screening showed unfinished footage.
The film was previously slated to open on April 12, 2024, but was delayed to December 13, 2024.
Brian Cox plays Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan and protagonist. Gaia Wise plays Helm's daughter Hera. Luke Pasqualino plays Wulf, a Dunlending lord. Miranda Otto reprises her role from the original films as Éowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan, and she is also the narrator.
The cast also includes Lorraine Ashbourne, Yazdan Qafouri, Benjamin Wainwright, Laurence Ubong Williams, Shaun Dooley, Michael Wildman, Jude Akuwudike, Bilal Hasna, and Janine Duvitski.
The film is described as an original anime feature, depicting "a legendary battle that helped shape Middle-earth and set the stage" for Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Joseph Chou (Blade Runner: Black Lotus TV series) is producing, and Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) are writing the screenplay. The Oscar-winner Philippa Boyens, who was part of the screenwriting team on the live-action The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, is a consultant on the project.
Jason DeMarco — Adult Swim's senior vice president and head of anime and action series as well as senior vice president in the anime and action series/longform department at Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios — is a producer on the film, and he confirmed that the film is in 2D.
Update: Added images. Source: Email correspondence
Sources: Entertainment Weekly (Christian Holub), Variety (Carolyn Giardina), Screenthrill's Instagram account
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