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By TREVOR HOGGImages courtesy of Warner Bros. PicturesMany attempts were made to bring The Lord of the Rings to the big screen with the most famous being John Boorman co-writing a script in 1970 that laid the foundation for his Arthurian classic Excalibur. Escape from development hell finally happened in 1978 when Ralph Bakshi did an adaption that covered half of the trilogy, which combined roto and hand-drawn animation. The franchise is returning to its animation roots with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Animation bringing The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim to theaters under the direction of acclaimed anime filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama, who is making his first visit to Middle-earth after spending time in New Port City and Los Angeles in 2032 for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Blade Runner: Black Lotus. The project takes place 183 years before the original trilogy helmed by Peter Jackson and revolves around the childhood friends Hra and Wulf becoming sworn enemies after their fathers engage in a hand-to-hand combat with each other resulting in one of them being killed. Serving as a producer alongside Joseph Chou and Jason DeMarco is Philippa Boyens, who developed the story with Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews and has been a frequent writing partner of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh ever since The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.When the studio came to us and asked, What about anime? this story seemed to fit what we were looking to do, which is to tell a standalone story with fresh characters who we had not come across before and didnt involve any dark lords or rings of power. When they told us that Kenji Kamiyama was interested in directing it, that got me even more excited.Philippa Boyens, ProducerHra (Gaia Wise), Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), Haleth (Benjamin Wainwright and Hama (Yazdan Qafouri) hold court in a scene that makes use of a live-action sensibility but in the style of anime.When it comes to horse riding, motion-capture footage was given to animators as reference so they could heighten the level of realism in their hand-drawn animation.From the beginning, the desire was to tell an animated tale that was a new take on Middle-earth while still having an air of familiarity. We did actually look at other forms of animation and other stories, states Producer Philippa Boyens while attending New York Comic Con to promote the feature with Kenji Kamiyama and Joseph Chou (who served as a translator for Kamiyama). When the studio came to us and asked, What about anime? this story seemed to fit what we were looking to do, which is to tell a standalone story with fresh characters who we had not come across before and didnt involve any dark lords or rings of power. When they told us that Kenji Kamiyama was interested in directing it, that got me even more excited. Shifting from television productions to a feature film did not radically change the animation process. A lot of anime directors set out to be a filmmaker, but in Japan the most freedom you get and the easiest path to directing is to go through the medium of anime, Kamiyama explains. Ive done a few films, but my prominent works have been series where the times demanded it; we either want more DVDs or episodes on streaming. But the filmmaking process and techniques are what I take to every single one of them when crafting and telling the story. When taking on this project [which started as 90 minutes and became 2 hours and 10 minutes], it was a different muscle that I had to use. I was so used to the 30-minute format that I had to change my way of thinking to be able transition into a two-hour format where you have a complete story told within that limited amount of time. Making a movie is like a 400-meter run while a series resembles a marathon. You have to pace yourself and hit your goal throughout that whole period. A movie is not a 100-meter dash, but you do need to move fast and get there by pacing yourself; it is quite an intense experience.Its mature storytelling and deserves a mature visualization. Thats one thing I wanted to do by taking on this film. It presented me with the opportunity to create that kind of visual and film that perhaps breaks the mold for anime in how its presented to audiences outside of Japan.Kenji Kamiyama, DirectorThe intention was always to do an animated film.There is no longer a divide between 2D and 3D animation as the best of both techniques are being creatively fused together in a large part by the growing popularity of adult animation. Animation targeted or appealing to adults is not something new for Japanese anime, Kamiyama observes. If you have seen my work, it has a lot of mature themes and storytelling. But there is definitely a shift in the West where theatrical animation is not just for kids but can also be enjoyed by adults as well. However, when you say animation, there is still this perception that it is for kids. But, for me, I believe that animation has the potential to elevate certain types of storytelling as a visual medium that can appeal to a general audience. One of the motivations for taking this film was this was a chance to do that and have that platform where the audience will be able to come in and at least check out how this kind of storytelling can be done by animation. Its not only about how attractive the drawing is or how good the art is, but its about how people are moving within the frames of the animation; that connects with the technique of how you would want to do this.Hra is modeled in a large part on owyn, with Mirand Otto, who played her in the original trilogy, serving as the narrator.An unconscious agreement exists between animation filmmakers and audience members. Explains Kamiyama, The reason why I took on motion capture and CG animation [is because] even though animation is not as detailed as live-action, audiences come in understanding that it does exist and fill in certain gaps. By adding some element of reality, it heightens the experience so much that it actually makes them appreciate what is happening on the screen even more. That is something which can be done differently from live-action where there is already so much visual detail. Its about how people move, how they get on a horse or how people put things in pockets. The depiction of those little things needed to be done by human hands, but in order to get it done by human hands you need the assistance of CG animation. For me to visualize, set the timing, decide on the camera lens and how the angle should be, all of that was done with motion capture data in an Unreal Engine setting. Then I would go and do the acting for certain actors in specific situations in CG animation. That would be provided completed as a film to the animators to use as a guide to create the hand-drawn animation. Tolkien does not write childrens fairy tales. Its mature storytelling and deserves a mature visualization. Thats one thing I wanted to do by taking on this film. It presented me with the opportunity to create that kind of visual and film that perhaps breaks the mold for anime in how its presented to audiences outside of Japan, Kamiyama remarks.You have this familiar landscape of that valley, which you have seen from the live-action films, but now set against the backdrop of the Long Winter] it has this beautiful, frozen quality. Even when you get a bit of sunlight coming through, you still see the sheets of ice on the side of the cliff faces, and that frozen quality that Kamiyama brings to it visually makes it feel different. We know that silhouette and have seen that long ramp before, but this is different. The subtle changes are beautifully done.Philippa Boyens, ProducerJ.J.R. Tolkien does not write childrens fairy tales, so a mature approach was taken towards the storytelling and the animation.Animation is not simply about drawing pretty pictures but also how characters move within the frame.The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim takes place 183 years before the original trilogy helmed by Peter Jackson.Childhood friends Hra (Gaia Wise) and Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) become sworn enemies after their fathers engage in a hand-to-hand combat with each other resulting in one of them being killed.Assisting with concept design was the Wt Workshop.Serving as the narrative spine of the story is the father/daughter relationship between Helm Hammerhand and Hra.Even with the big battle sequences, it is the subtle details that immerse audiences in the world-building and characters.I believe that animation has the potential to elevate certain types of storytelling as a visual medium that can appeal to a general audience. One of the motivations for taking this film was this was a chance to do that and have that platform where the audience will be able to come in and at least check out how this kind of storytelling can be done by animation. Its not only about how attractive the drawing is or how good the art is, but its about how people are moving within the frames of the animation; that connects with the technique of how you would want to do this.Kenji Kamiyama, DirectorRather than have a well-known character as the protagonist, the decision was to explore the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand and the ancient stronghold of Hornburg, which figures prominently in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as Helms Deep, through the eyes of Hammerhands daughter Hra. Hra is in the story, so shes not created from whole cloth, Boyens explains. I examined a lot of the characters in that story who didnt necessarily out-live it. When you look at the story and what sparks the conflict, it centered around her. Who might actually see through this conflict to its final ending? You begin to realize that its this character, potentially. Hra is not without precedent within Professor J.R.R. Tolkiens world. Obviously, we are distinctively drawing upon owyn, but if you go back even further to the first Haleth, who was a woman, you could see that there is this tradition of quite strong women existing in the Rohirrim culture. Also, having an unnamed character does give you more freedom to be able to say, What happens to this character? Why is she so pivotal to this story? What is her relationship not only to her father but this antagonist? Once you start delving into that, the story came into focus fairly quickly. The thing that Kamiyama found and works beautifully on an emotional level is theres a level of father/daughter story in this that is interesting and beautifully played by Brian Cox and Gaia Wise.The Oliphaunt causes battlefield mayhem, just like in the original trilogy.Helms Keep is revisited, but in a different way. This is a much longer siege that were dealing with in this film, set against the backdrop of the Long Winter, which is an event that affected all of Middle-earth, and a lot of people suffered through it, Boyens states. For the Rohirrim, its one catastrophe on top of another. You have this familiar landscape of that valley, which you have seen from the live-action films, but now it has this beautiful, frozen quality. Even when you get a bit of sunlight coming through, you still see the sheets of ice on the side of the cliff faces, and that frozen quality that Kamiyama brings to it visually makes it feel different. We know that silhouette and have seen that long ramp before, but this is different. The subtle changes are beautifully done. Obviously, the gates are destroyed somewhere in this film because the gates are different than the ones you see in the live-action movies. Kamiyama pushed it even further with other settings, like Isengard, which we are so familiar with in connection with Saruman who inhabited it. Now were seeing it well before that, when the Orthanc is locked up, so what has risen around it are deserted guard towers, which have been taken over by another force of people. You get to see Isengard that was once familiar, but he uses it in a much different way. Then you actually get to see even more details in stuff that we didnt get to see in the live-action films. We get to spend more time in the stables, weirdly. We get to see Edoras alight, which is quite shocking when you see that happen. We get to see the ruins of that city. Again, familiar, but then with this twist that Kamiyama brings to it, which is so beautifully done and visually stunning. The mood that he is able to capture in the film, youve got to see it in a big cinema. Im telling you!
