film<\/a> is not your run-of-the-mill fan project. While it had a low budget \u2014 it cost just 3,000 pounds \u2014 he used advanced visual effects technology for the time and created orc get-ups and a backdrop of Welsh ruins. At certain angles, Adrian Webster, the actor who plays Aragon, even strikingly resembles Viggo Mortensen, who played the character in the studio films.<\/p>\nInspired by behind-the-scenes shorts that accompanied the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d DVDs, Bouchard drew on a few short passages from \u201cThe Fellowship of the Ring,\u201d the first volume in the trilogy, as well as appendices. Seventeen years after Bilbo Baggins\u2019s infamous, fireworks-filled birthday party in the Shire, the wizard Gandalf sends Strider (later known as Aragorn) to capture Gollum \u2014 a hobbit turned corrupted troglodyte \u2014 before the evil lord Sauron can glean from him the location of the all-powerful One Ring. \u201cWe wanted to explore the artistry and play in that same universe of Middle-earth,\u201d Bouchard explained.<\/p>\n
Bouchard \u201cwas one of the pioneers in generating the sidequel,\u201d a work that\u2019s akin to a spinoff, Regina said, and he expanded the source material in ways that other studios like Amazon have only more recently begun to explore. \u201cIt was the ultimate fan accomplishment,\u201d Regina said.<\/p>\n
Now working as a virtual effects professional and indie film director, Bouchard developed \u201cThe Hunt for Gollum\u201d as a creative outlet while working his first job, as an assistant at a postproduction company in London. \u201cI\u2019ve always had a deep love for Tolkien\u2019s work,\u201d he said. \u201cThe depths of the world-building, the language, the poetry, the characters.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n