Joaquin Phoenix and Andy Serkis Shape Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum
joaquin phoenix sits outside the new creative assignment, but Peter Jackson says Andy Serkis should direct Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum. Jackson could have taken it himself, yet he chose to step back and keep producing the New Line project, which is scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 17, 2027.
Jackson’s Serkis bet
“I could have directed it, but I thought, I’ve done that,” Jackson said at his Cannes Film Festival Rendez-Vous. He said it would be more interesting for Serkis to lead the film because the story takes place between Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and centers on Gollum’s psychology and addiction.
Jackson added that Serkis “knows this guy better than anybody” and that he is “leaving it to him.” He said, “I’m here to help where I can. But I don’t interfere. I’ve given him as much freedom as I can.”
Dec. 17, 2027
The release date gives the film a long runway, and that matters for a project tied to one of the company’s most durable franchises. Jackson remains a producer, so the handoff is not a clean exit; it is a controlled shift in authorship with the original filmmaker staying close enough to protect the property while Serkis takes the lead.
That setup also narrows the stakes around interpretation. Jackson framed the movie as an internal character study rather than a broad quest, which puts the director choice at the center of how the film will play to theatrical audiences in 2027.
Motion capture and awards
Jackson also used the event to draw a line between Gollum and artificial characters. “Everyone is getting worried about AI. Gollum isn’t AI. He’s a motion-captured performance,” he said, adding, “I don’t think any artificial character or generated character has hope of winning awards. It’s a bit unfair. In the Andy Serkis case, it’s not AI generated, it’s a human-generated performance.”
He said he does not think the Academy Awards will ever honor a motion-capture performance in the current environment. For readers tracking the project’s trajectory, the clearest takeaway is simple: the movie now has a director, a producer with franchise authority, and a date on the calendar. The real test is whether Serkis can turn a character Jackson calls deeply internal into a theatrical event built for December 2027.
