Extended version featured on Youtube USA

On friday co-producer Spencer alerted me that we'd had over 70,000 views in 1 hour on the Youtube version of the film, which is extended in that 1 scene with Arithir was added back in. Anyway it turns out that the film was featured on this Friday's Youtube Spotlight on the USA/Worldwide homepage.



It's had over 600,000 views in the last 24 hours - crazy!

The Armchair Critic Review: The Hunt for Gollum (Independent Online Cinema, 2009)

The Armchair Critic: The Hunt for Gollum (Independent Online Cinema, 2009)

Here's another review of the film I've just been alerted to. Thanks Paula!

Inside Report - interview at SCI-FI-LONDON

The charming folks at INSIDE REPORT
did a feature on The Hunt for Gollum just before the premiere at SCI-FI-LONDON.
Check it out (includes Gareth doing his Gollum impression...) and me saying "great" far too many times.

the week of 1,000,000 views

The Hunt For Gollum crew after the premiere at SCI-FI-LONDON.

Well, it's been a hectic first week, with over 1 million views, thousands of messages from fans who appear to have enjoyed The Hunt For Gollum.

you can see the stats on www.dailymotion.com/huntforgollum
(adding the additional languages version to the HD version and you reach the total)



So it's time to sit back and reflect on releasing our baby out into the world!! It's been an emotional time. Our IMDB page and guestbook have received loads of messages. Dailymotion officially tell us that the film has "gone viral", which apparently is a first for a longform video. So how does it feel? Well it's been exhilerating, and completely unexpected. I was preparing myself for the inevitable onslaught of angry messages from diehard fans... which didn't come! Leaving me feeling almost smugly triumphant. Anyway it's time to come back down to earth and begin thinking about how to pickup a normal life again for a little while before embarking on the next crazy project.

A few interesting meetings and phonecalls have appeared, but the challenge now is to try and attract investors for the next project, which perhaps will be following Project Residue outlined:
http://www.independentonlinecinema.com

as the probable next project (but that requires considerable funding which will in itself require a lot of work). For the timebeing I'll sit back and read scripts, write scripts and see where the fancy takes me...

Chris

Going Global

A number of months ago we were contacted by two Spanish guys called Luis Ig. Bacas Riveiro and Jose Maria Urraca Mulero contacted us asking if they could subtitle the film into Spanish which we were very happy to help them do. Since then a lot more requests have flooded in and we currently have the film available on Dailymotion with subtitles in Spanish (from both Spain and Argentina), French, Portugese (from both Brazil and Portugal), German, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Polish, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Catalan and of course English. In addition, we are awaiting subtitles in Hebrew and Chinese. Once more the global power of Tolkien cannot be underestimated.

If you know of someone who might be able to translate the subtitles into a language not mentioned and who would like to do it then get them to email brian "at" hunt4gollum.com stating which language they could help with. Obviously we'd like the film to reach as many people as possible so any help doing that would be much appreciated :-)



p.s. to view the film with Hungarian, Norwegian, Finnish, Catalan, Portugal's Portugese or Argentina's Spanish then please go to the additional languages version of the film on http://www.dailymotion.com/HuntForGollum

p.p.s if you would like to view Serbian or Croatian subtitles then leconty has posted them on the forum here here

24 hours and 200,000 views later...

http://www.thehuntforgollum.com
is finally back up online (sorry for that) and I need to sleep, maybe dream of the next project! So i'll leave you with these links somebody kindly emailed me...

(posting this really for the cast and crew to check out, have fun guys - was an awesome party!! loving you all!)

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/news/1811402/rts_top_5_fan_films
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8022623.stm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103673352
US radio

Review:
http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?id=8013
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/05/03/lord-of-the-rings-fan-film-the-hunt-for-gollum-now-online/
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/the-hunt-for-gollum-full-short-film-now-online
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2009/05/03/32047-fan-film-hunt-for-gollum-watch-it-now/
http://www.starlog.com/home/daily-news/1-movies-a-television/117-the-hunt-for-gollum-begins
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/695191/LOTR-Fan-Film-The-Hunt-For-Gollum-Premieres-This-Weekend.html
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/News/143808,new-lord-of-the-rings-film.aspx
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8028657.stm
BBC Northern Ireland
http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2009/05/01/will-the-hunt-for-gollum-satisfy-true-fans/
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/04/hunt-gollum.html
http://londonist.com/2009/04/arts_ahead_whats_on_in_london_29_ap.php
http://fancinematoday.com/
http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=12760
http://www.demonews.de/kurznachrichten/index.php?shortnews=20380
http://www.moviereporter.net/news/6967-the-hunt-for-gollum-ein-prequel-von-fans
http://www.jatekok.hu/hirek.php?tabla=hirek_200905&id=32
http://www.vivacinema.it/articolo/the-hunt-for-gollum-e-uscito/8595/
http://blog.screenweek.it/2009/05/the-hunt-for-gollum-finalmente-on-line-42514.php
http://www.badtaste.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7772&Itemid=63
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/50268-the-hunt-for-gollum.html
http://www.filmtotaal.nl/artikel.php?id=13734
http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/05/04/kultur/film/ringenes_herre/tolkien/peter_jackson/6042321/
http://www.elbakin.net/film/news/9935-The-Hunt-for-Gollum-est-en-ligne
http://www.fantasymundo.com/noticias/10353/hunt_for_gollum_online
http://www.allocine.fr/article/fichearticle_gen_carticle=18458491.html
http://www.gamona.de/kino-dvd/der-hobbit,die-jagd-nach-gollum-fanprojekt-ist-fertig:news,1469439.html
http://www.fantasy.fr/articles/view/9288/un-extrait-pour-the-hunt-for-gollum
http://www.mymovies.it/cinemanews/2009/6424/
http://www.omelete.com.br/cine/100019395/O_Senhor_dos_Aneis.aspx
http://www.elbenwald.de/news.php?news=n3358_Trailer-zum-Herr-der-Ringe-Fan-Film--The-Hunt-for-Gollum.html
http://www.rumors.it/notizie/29358/articolo.htm
http://www.new.divirta-se.uai.com.br/html/sessao_8/2009/04/30/ficha_cinema/id_sessao=8&id_noticia=10650/ficha_cinema.shtml
http://blog.screenweek.it/2009/04/fan-film-su-gollum-online-gratuitamente-fra-pochi-giorni-42225.php
http://www.corriere.it/spettacoli/09_aprile_25/grandesso_e09aca00-31b2-11de-98f0-00144f02aabc.shtml
http://epocanegocios.globo.com/Revista/Common/0,,EMI69923-16353,00-FAS+DE+O+SENHOR+DOS+ANEIS+GRAVAM+INICIO+INEDITO+DA+SAGA+COM+R+MIL.html
http://www.ecrans.fr/L-ecole-des-fan-films,7029.htm
http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/blog/2009/04/25/the-hunt-for-gollum-video-teaser/
The Guardian Guide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/03/fan-films-hunt-for-gollum
The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/129688/hunt-for-gollum
http://www.highlandersbooks.com/2009/05/03/newsflash-the-hunt-for-gollum/
http://www.themorningstarr.co.uk/2009/05/03/the-hunt-for-gollum/
http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=the_hunt_for_gollum_to

Working Player Link... on Dailymotion

Our servers died.... ouch! so go to Dailymotion to watch the film directly here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/huntforgollum

WATCH THE FILM!!!

Watch the Film... (4pm Sunday)

To watch the film... after 4pm GMT on Sunday 3rd of May (that's probably before midday in the USA of course) direct your browser towards...

www.thehuntforgollum.com
(sorry about website problems, go below if so.... - we're trying to fix it!!!!

OR

www.dailymotion.com/huntforgollum

It will be go live at or around 4pm - and will be released with subtitles in over 7 languages (French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish... and more...)
Have fun, we did. :)
Chris
NB: if you're computer can't handle the "HD" version be sure to click "MENU" and then "High Quality" so you still get a reasonably good picture quality.