Andy Serkis has confirmed that The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which he is directing and starring in, will use AI as part of de-ageing some returning cast. Shooting is under way in New Zealand, and the film is due in cinemas on 17 December 2027.
The story falls between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring and brings back actors from Peter Jackson's trilogy, including Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Lee Pace as Thranduil and Orlando Bloom as Legolas, with Serkis again playing Gollum under digital make-up. More than two decades have passed since The Return of the King, so some of them will be made to look younger, a technique that has become common since X-Men: The Last Stand de-aged McKellen, among others, in 2006. Speaking to Variety, Serkis said machine learning forms part of that process, without naming who would be de-aged.
Film Stories reads this as the older machine-learning approach used on films such as The Irishman, Gemini Man and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, rather than the generative tools behind today's image and chatbot services. Serkis stressed that no shots in the film are being generated by AI and that everything is made by traditional means, combining miniatures, prosthetics and CGI. He said reviving those older filmmaking crafts and mixing techniques was one of his aims for the project.
He is not opposed to generative AI in principle. Like Jackson, he calls it a creative tool that can help with tasks such as producing reference images, and he sees no problem with that. He drew the line at uses that exploit or defame people, fail to pay those whose work is used, or veer into pornography. Film Stories' writer pushes back, arguing that generative AI is already doing each of those things and so cannot yet be treated as just another tool.
Sources · 1