The first is obviously Peter Jackson.He directed and gets most of the acclaim.
Jackson and Walsh are executive producers but Boyens was much more involved as a standard producer.
io9 sat down with the Oscar-winning writer and producer to dive into her involvement with the film.
Meet fantastic new character Hera in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.Image: Warner Bros.
We talked about expectations, developing the story, and keeping the Tolkien canon while also adding to it.
Its been almost 30 years since you guys started working on the original films.
Philippa Boyens:Oh, absolutely not.
Hera at the ready – Warner Bros.
We were literally, honest to God, just trying to make it work as a film.
Trying to double-check that we were doing something that was going to work on film for its own sake.
We had no concept of like blockbusters or anything like that at all.
King Helm – Warner Bros.
I can honestly say that.
Boyens:No, no, no.
We were writing and trying to get ahead of production basically.
Hera in the snow – Warner Bros.
[Laughs] Beyond the work itself, she meant.
And I said, Yeah, I know.
io9: But clearly she was wrong.
Saruman in the new film. – Warner Bros.
There were plenty of rewards.
Were still here and still talking about it.
So tell me about the decision to make this movie .
The eagles are coming – Warner Bros.
Did Warner Bros. come to you guys?
Boyens:Yeah, Warner Bros came to us in about 2019, I think it was.
It was just more that I didnt know how to do it, if that makes sense.
I didnt know what form it would take and then which story.
And we also knew that we wanted to introduce fresh characters to it.
And so then it was a process of trying to marry those two things.
And it wasnt until Warner Bros. actually said, What about anime?
that this story immediately popped into my brain.
And it was like, Oh, wow.
Maybe going through that process that wed gone through prior helped me go, Okay.
io9: So what was it about this story that spoke to you?
Clearly there could have been, not an infinite amount of stories, but other stories.
And I know that other ones were pitched to you.
So Im wondering, what was it about this one that made you sure?
Boyens:No, they werent really pitched to us.
I dont think anyone would have dared to try and pitch us a story.
[Laughed] There were some ideas some people had that were thinking where we might go.
Actually, the biggest, most epic battle happens at the end of the first act.
And it even brings in threads of different kinds of genres.
Theres almost like a ghost story kind of creeping in elements, that sort of thing.
And that started to remind me of like a Miyazaki film.
It reminded me of the great Kurosawa films, especially the character at the heart of it, Helm.
He felt a character that would not feel out of place in a Kurosawa film.
io9: Oh, absolutely.
So youre using the source material from the appendices here as a basic skeleton.
I started working with two young writers who were really great.
They were good, but they didnt they werent quite steeped in that world of Tolkien, I think.
And they were lovely to work with.
But Kamiyama especially, and I certainly felt it too, felt like we werent there.
We didnt have it.
You know when youve got it and we didnt have it.
And that was when I started looking at who else could do it.
And one of the characters that I felt we were always struggling with was Hera.
And what was wrong there was this character wasnt speaking to young women today.
She was like She needs to be able to own her own fear.
She needs to be able to make mistakes.
She needs to be able to not know what to do next.
She doesnt have to be a girl boss.
She doesnt have to be some kick-ass female.
She doesnt need to be Wonder Woman.
And then the relationship between the father and daughter became a natural consequence of that.
io9: Thats fascinating because it becomes the beating heart of the film.
But, like you said, Hera is more of your creation, not Professor Tolkien.
So Im wondering, is there any approval process?
No, we dont.
But can I say this?
The other thing that I do know from experience is that nothing we do changes the books.
The books will always stand as this incredible monumental work of imagination.
And what were doing is literally just adapting, interpreting, and bringing to another medium.
But I think at the same time, I think there are choices that he would have approved of.
And I think there are definitely elements.
Some of the artwork is so beautiful.
And I think he would have 100 percent approved of that.
Howard Shores score, I think he would have loved.
Ian McKellens Gandalf, I think is perfect.
I think its always going to be that push-pull of some stuff that will feel immediately is right.
Its got to work as a film.
And youve got to make those hard choices.
io9: No, that makes sense.
Is there ever any communication between the teams?
And does that show at all impact what you guys are doing?
Not really, to be honest.
Although one of the nice things is that Ive got friends whove worked onThe Rings of Power.
I think theyve used some of the people from Weta Workshop, etc.
But no, I dont see any rivalry.
Im sure they dont either because were actually working in a very different space.
Were literally working in different ages of the world of Middle-earth.
Weve kind of done the same thing.
Like You go do you, because thats the best way for you to proceed.
So Im curious about Howard Shores score and Miranda Otto as the narrator.
How did those two things happen to keep the links going?
Boyens:Yeah, Eowyn happened because this really was our guide through this world.
And so I remember talking to Miranda about it when we were conceiving of the whole thing.
And she loved the idea that I said, Eowyn is the princess who ended up in Gondor.
And now shes speaking.
Shes telling a tale to her kids and maybe shes a little homesick.
And what that gave us is a much more personal voice-over than you would normally get sometimes in voice-overs.
A personal quality to it, an emotional quality to it.
So that was where that came from.
io9: And then Howards music, the choice to bring back?
Boyens:Why would you not?
io9: [Laughs] Yes, thats the correct answer.
Boyens:That would be grounds to prosecute if you didnt use Howard Shores music.
It would be kind of illegal, right?
So I actually got a very sweet communication from Howard when I reached out to him.
I think Howard seemed to feel happy that the music lives on.
But now we know we are returning to live-action withThe Hunt for Gollummovie and some other mysterious thing.
Boyens:It was falling back in love with it, to be honest.
It was feeling like, Oh, maybe there is some more story there to tell.
And also was starting to feel a bit of an appetite for it.
And we started getting that uptick in people writing to you, all of that sort of stuff.
And it felt appropriate.
I dont know what it is.
Because really you are always dependent on the audience and thats exactly the way it should be.
We should be making these films for people to enjoy.
And the best way to do that is to know that theres an audience out there for them.
Lets see what happens.
What happens isThe Lord of the RIngs: The War of the Rohirrimhits theaters this weekend.
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