Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou are two of the screenwriters of the new animated film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. An anime entry into the Tolkien world, Rohirrim further fleshes out the Lord of the Rings mythology, introducing the audience to the character of Helm (as in Helm’s deep). Since both screenwriters were heavily influenced by Jackson’s original films thanks to their close, personal connection to the filming locations, they hold a great appreciation for the world and are, of course, driven to treat the content with the utmost respect.
Here, in an interview with The Contending, Gittins and Papageorgiou dive into their involvement in the project, including how much inspiration could be taken from this world and that it was a fight to not take too much from the Tolkien universe.
The Contending: How did you two become writing partners?
Phoebe Gittins: We have known each other since we were 16, running around with cameras making shorts. So we have been working together forever.
The Contending: This story is based on events mentioned briefly as part of a larger world that many people are already familiar with. You also needed to fill out the personalities of characters with little detail while also creating an entirely new character with Hèra. How did you approach tackling so many different challenges?
Phoebe Gittins: We feel quite strongly that we had a good roadmap for Hèra, trying to imagine the type of woman who could have paved the way for the likes of Éowyn. We wanted to draw some strong similarities in the hopes that she feels familiar and yet she is her own person.
Arty Papageorgiou: Tolkien I feel is just a master of world building so there’s a never-ending pool of inspiration. So it really wasn’t too much of a task to read as much as we could, and we could find these threads of the history of the many different people. With Freca claiming descent, and what does that mean for him and for his son? What does it mean for the people his son commands into battle? It leads to so many questions and it’s inspiration overload really. The task for us actually was what we did not try to put in, it was an embarrassment of riches.
The Contending: Were you guys fans of Tolkien before taking on this project? Or was this something new for you guys to get into?
Arty Papageorgiou: I grew up in the sweet spot of those first three films being the biggest cultural cornerstones on the planet. We also grew up in Wellington so you would go to bed at night and there would be these big film lights on the hills. It was the most exciting thing in the world. Before they even started shooting, I grew up in the area around the workshop and just the idea that some people who brought Marty McFly to Wellington to make The Frighteners were making another movie was invigorating. Then eventually the movies come out and they are mind-blowing. You couldn’t help but just love the whole movement. That was my jump off point into the world of Tolkien.
Phoebe Gittins: I took it even a step further in that I grew up on the sets literally. I thought it was normal for everyone to have swords! I have a genuine love for this world and Tolkien. The first text I ever read was The Hobbit in primary school and then I saw the films and, as I said, grew up in and around the making of the films. Then I read the Lord of the Rings books after the films when I was a bit older, and it has been a long time since I revisited them, so this opportunity does carry a lot of nostalgia. It has been really lovely to get back in that world and with a purpose and a new lens on it.
The Contending: Based on what I’ve read and the little bit that I’ve seen, the dynamic between Hèra and Wulf is a huge part of the story. They have a good history together from when they were children and then everything goes wrong as adults. How did you approach their complex relationship?
Phoebe Gittins: Wulf was a really fun character to write because there is a level where you could argue he is justified in the beginning. That was an interesting thing to navigate and we knew given that starting point we were going to need a really strong turning point for this character. A point of no return to drive him into becoming a real villainous character.
Arty Papageorgiou: What is so interesting about both of them is that they both inherit the situation from their fathers. All the choices that they make afterwards lead them down very different paths. It was also interesting having a non-traditional hero for this kind of story and the challenge became how do we write that kind of character and how she takes on Wulf.
Phoebe Gittins: Speaking of choices, it does feel like this could have gone a very different way with the two of them. That was something we really wanted to establish early on, and Kenji (Kamiyama) creating that flashback of them as children really helped solidify their relationship.
The Contending: What was it like getting to see it all put together on screen after all the work you’ve put into it?
Phoebe Gittins: It was very exciting.
Arty Papageorgiou: We were actually involved in a lot of the process, which is unique for most writers. We were there for the voice recordings and the ADR sessions and also post-production, so it was even more rewarding to see it at the very end. It wasn’t a huge surprise for us because we had been there the whole time. Something about seeing it finished even after being so close to it felt very fresh. In the final couple of weeks the team was doing the sound mix and we sat down to watch it and you saw how it came together and it felt like it was a part of the other six films as a big screen experience. It’s a testament to not just the sound team but the animators and the director Kenji Kamiyama, all of it felt like a home run.
Phoebe Gittins: It kind of surprised me in the beginning that this was the story that was chosen for an anime feature film. But what really wowed me when I saw it on screen was the human characters and just how much they were able to bring them to life that you almost forget in a sense that you are watching anime. I thought that was a real triumph of what they had done.
Arty Papageorgiou: As writers, even if we were involved in other parts of the filmmaking process, we were so lost in the weeds worrying about our characters, the stakes, how the scenes are playing and all of those details. To step back and see what they were able to pull off was really amazing.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim opens Friday in theaters nationwide.
