I‘ve never been a follower of fan fiction or fan made films but when this much effort is put into a project, it makes me tingle with excitement.

I know there’s a really good Batman fan film kicking around and a BC based fan made TV show called “Into the Black” and based on Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” universe but this is the first time I’ve seen anyone attempt, in any sort of way beyond a bunch of kids and a camera, a LotR film and I have to say, I’m thoroughly impressed.

It’s called Born of Hope and it “is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings and is inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings in the Appendices of the Trilogy. Unlike most fan films Born of Hope is not a spoof or parody, but a serious drama with many aspects of Tolkien’s work and Peter Jackson’s New Line films represented: love, war, family, friendship, good and evil.”

Thanks to the folks at Crave, I checked out the trailer and I’m really quite stunned by the work they’ve managed to do. Yes, it’s still obviously not Peter Jackson budget but this English en devour is obviously being put together by folks that know what they’re doing and rather surprisingly, the acting is actually pretty good.

I am thrilled that someone out there is willing to take a chance on a project of this size with very little backing and I wish them the very best of luck. I hope they manage to actually finish the project because it’s one I would love to see.

Lots of details, photographs, shooting diary and loads of behind the scenes video at the official website.