Tolkien and anime work well together, says LOTR: The War Of The Rohirrim’s Japanese director

NEW YORK – It has been a decade since the work of fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien last appeared on the big screen.

It certainly left an impression when it last did, with New Zealand director Peter Jackson’s two live-action trilogies based on the late English writer’s books, The Lord Of The Rings (2001 to 2003) and The Hobbit (2012 to 2014), earning more than US$5 billion at the box office.

And fans of Tolkien’s fantastical universe, Middle-earth, are finally getting another movie with The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim, an anime feature opening in Singapore cinemas on Dec 5.

Set 183 years before the events of The Lord Of The Ring films, it tells the story of Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox), a king who must defend his realm in the face of a longstanding territorial dispute.

This is the first Tolkien story to be told using anime – an animation genre that originated in Japan. And at a fan event with the cast and creators in New York earlier in 2024, executive producer Philippa Boyens explains why.

The story of Helm, which is found in the appendices of Tolkien’s classic 1950s novel The Lord Of The Rings, is well-suited to anime, says the New Zealand screenwriter. The 61-year-old co-wrote the live-action films and shared a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar with Jackson for The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003).

“We’d been looking at going back to Middle-earth, and when (production company) Warner Bros Animation came to us and said, ‘What about anime?’, this story sprang to mind immediately.

“I had a gut feeling the story of Rohirrim would work in the world of anime and within the great tradition of Japanese film-making,” she adds.

Like many anime stories, Tolkien’s fantasy epic features “the nested themes of loyalty and honour but, underneath that, the current that no one is truly good and no one is completely evil – it’s all about the choices that you make”, says Boyens.

The War Of The Rohirrim’s Japanese director, Kenji Kamiyama, also believes Tolkien’s fables work well with anime.

Speaking through an interpreter, the 58-year-old – who was a director on the Ghost In The Shell Japanese anime franchise from 2002 to 2023 – says: “I felt that the Helm Hammerhand story is a very tragic type of story in which a legendary figure causes a chain of events and faces the end of his bloodline.

“There was a story in there for a movie and room to explore how that happened. That was interesting to me.”

Kamiyama was also intrigued by the opportunity to expand on the character of the king’s daughter, Hera, who is mentioned in Tolkien’s writing but goes unnamed.

In the movie, she is voiced by 24-year-old English actress Gaia Wise – daughter of British star Emma Thompson, 65 – and becomes integral to the story.

“She basically carries the entire film,” says the director.

“She’s the one observing all these things happening and going on this journey together with all the characters.”

Kamiyama says Tolkien’s world left a lasting impact on Japanese fantasy storytelling.

“When Tolkien first created this work, fantasy stories were perhaps taken just as fairy tales for younger children.

“But he revolutionised fantasy as something mature readers and audiences can appreciate, and that set the template for not only Western fantasy, but also anime or manga done in Japan.”

For Cox, the story is also an intense family drama, in which the father-daughter relationship between Helm and Hera is central.

“The one light in his life is his daughter, who is very close to him,” says the 78-year-old Scottish actor, who played media tycoon Logan Roy in the acclaimed HBO drama Succession (2018 to 2023).

The role was also a chance for the veteran to rediscover his inner child.

“Even though I am a certain age, I still think of myself as nine,” he says.

“So, when you go into a studio for a role like this, it’s a vent for your imagination and you can take yourself on amazing journeys.”

The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim opens in Singapore cinemas on Dec 5.