LOTR Prequel: Born Of Hope

Looks like there's a low budget prequel to 'The Lord of the Rings' movies being filmed in Essex, England. Estimated release date is sometime in 2009.

Orcs are back in Lord of the Rings-inspired Born of Hope

British film makers are hoping to recreate the magic of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in a low budget movie inspired by JRR Tolkien's books.

Born of Hope is a prequel to the fantasy novels and tells the story of the Dúnedain, the Rangers of the North, before the return of the King.

The 60-minute film, which will be released on the internet next year, focuses on Arathorn and Gilraen, the parents of Aragorn, from their first meeting through a turbulent time in their people's history.

Filming has already begun in Epping Forest in Essex, with the latest footage showing actors trudging through the woods dressed as sword-wielding Orcs.

Kate Robinson, who is directing the film, said: "Born of Hope is a prequel to the New Line Trilogy and my aim is to make a film that can sit alongside those films without looking too out of place.

"We want to show people more of a back-story for Aragorn. Based on Tolkien's writings in the Appendices of the books we look at Aragorn's people and show the relationship between his parents."

Source: The Telegraph

Cool initiative, but I don't feel 'low-budget' and 'LOTR' are two things that should be mentioned in the same sentence.
I mean, LOTR is the 'bombastic, visually perfect' epic movie. So I think a low budget prequel would kind, ruin the record..

But we'll see how it turns out!

mh, as Ian already said. Low-budget and LOTR don't fit together.
Hopefully they wont ruin the lore and everything.

But i guess everything LOTR related can't be that bad.

The phrase 'low-budget' is indeed a death sentance for this movie. Not sure how they got the rights, and a pretty corny name too, nothing to do with LOTR. But still it still might turn out good.

Reminds me of the Star Wars Ewok movies, about Wicket etc...

It looks okay. I will be watching this we will see how it turns out.
There should be a FATW film.:hmmm:

I dunno, it does'nt look to bad :hmmm:

Low-budget doesn't mean this movie is doomed. It just means we won't have big animations like in the trilogy and for a 60 minutes film, I don't think we need them. It looks pretty good, acting is a bit iffy though

Yes, acting does look a bit dodgy. And they'be put the dramatic music in that trailer in the wrong places. Come on, whats so dramatic about a guy in a cloak with the camera zooming in? I think just a less 'dramatic' vid would of been more effective.

Looks OK though.

The orcs look decent. That was the main thing to worry about, if you ask me. Costumes and landscape look alright too. I agree the acting looks a bit dodgy. But not bad. I have seen Hollywood movies with much worse... everything.
Thanks for sharing this (+rep). I will keep an eye on it.

the guy who directed hellboy and pans labyrinth has already made plans to make the hobbit which will be out in 2010.

Looks like the Sci-Fi original movies, but with decent looking monsters.

Yeah, the acting is a little bit dodgy. But it still looks quite alright for a low budget movie.

I agree, the fact that it's low budget may make this a sub-par film, compared to other Lord of the Ring films. But I won't judge its content without watching it first.

looks okay for a low budget film.

It would be hard to create a low budget film that attempts to stand with the LOTR trilogy, but kudos to them for trying. I hope it turns out to be sucessful.

I thought the dunedain were WANDERING warriors. Why is there a village?

I don't think it is a Dunedain village. Just a village in which a woman lives, one of the rangers is in love with. Could be wrong though.