Just because Amazon spent 70 gazillion squillion dollars on its epic adaptation of JRR Tolkien's backstory for the forging of the Rings of Power in Lord Of The Rings doesn't mean the company has a stranglehold on all things Tolkien. Case in point: New Line Cinema Warner Bros' planned anime movie War Of The Rohirrim, which, Variety now reports, will arrive in cinemas on 12 April, 2024.
Veteran anime filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama is on board to direct, working from a script by Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, with the original drafts originating from The Dark Crystal: The Age Of Resistance writers Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews. The story will depict the bloody saga behind Helm’s Deep, the fortress depicted in Peter Jackson's The Two Towers, and the man in whose honor it is named: Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan who spent much of his reign locked in a prolonged and costly war.
And while Jackson isn't working on this one, the aim is for it to connect in some way to his two trilogies, with Philippa Boyens, who worked on both set of movies' scripts present as an executive producer and consultant. Co-writer Gittins, meanwhile, is her daughter, and the look of the movie is being partly guided by LOTR movie veterans Richard Taylor, Alan Lee and John Howe.
“I’m in awe of the creative talent who have come together to bring this epic, heart-pounding story to life, from the mastery of Kenji Kamiyama to a truly stellar cast,” Boyens tells Variety. As for who might be in that cast? Well, we'll have to wait to find out, but announcements are expected soon, with the movie itself due, as mentioned, in April 2024.