See Lord Of The Rings Directed By Wes Anderson
AI shows us what Lord of the Rings would have looked like if it were directed by Wes Anderson instead of Peter Jackson.
Artificial intelligence keeps casting magic. A new TikTok video from AI Insight delivers a trailer for Lord of the Rings as if directed by Wes Anderson, and it is a delight. Starring Timothee Chalamet and Tom Holland as Frodo and Samwise, the trailer puts a whimsical, pastel touch on the classic LOTR franchise, with each character centered up in symmetrical, Anderson-esque frames.
ChatGPT casts the theoretical film with side-splitting accuracy. Joining Chalamet and Holland in Lord of the Rings is a pitch-perfect roster of A-listers and frequent Wes Anderson collaborators.
The video casts Bill Murray as Gandalf, Jason Schwartzman as Aragorn, John C. Reilly as Gimli, Nicholas Hoult as Legolas, Oscar Isaac as Boromir, Tilda Swinton as Galadriel, Edward Norton as Pippin, Asa Butterfield as Merry, Steve Carell as Bilbo, and Owen Wilson as Gollum.
A compilation of AI-generated art plays underneath a mild, British voiceover as it sets up the group’s quest to defeat a rather dapper Sauron. Lord of the Rings directed by Wes Anderson takes on a painterly storybook quality that, while less threatening than Peter Jackson’s films, is equally charming and magical.
While Warner Bros. puts together a Lord of the Rings reboot and Amazon struggles to film its second season of The Rings of Power, Wes Anderson is hard at work on projects of his own. June 23 will see the release of Anderson’s latest film, Asteroid City.
The star-studded project takes place at a junior stargazers convention in the American desert. Things get complicated when alien life arrives, trapping the stargazers at the convention as they grapple with the existential consequences of their predicament.
The film is another showcase of classic Wes Anderson trademarks, with mid-century design influence, bleached-out, pastel colors, comedically stilted performances, and symmetrical shots. Anderson won’t be adapting Lord of the Rings anytime soon, but he is hard at work on The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, the director’s second adaptation of a Roald Dahl book.
AI has made similar trailers in the past, imagining what Wes Anderson’s Star Wars might look like. The director’s unique style makes him an easy target for AI, and seeing his taste applied to popular franchises is a gimmick that hits every time.
Fun as it is to imagine, studio executives in charge of film franchises like Lord of the Rings aren’t calling Wes Anderson for pitches. In a 2018 interview with Chron, a news outlet in Anderson’s hometown of Houston, TX, the director explained his vision for a Star Wars movie as an example of why he does not get those types of jobs.
“I might do one where the Millennium Falcon is broken down and we do the whole thing at the garage,” Anderson said. “We’re with the mechanics. We can have some of our regular characters waiting, like, ‘We need to be on other planets but there’s nothing we can do.'”
“That’s the exact reason (studio) people would say, ‘Interesting. We’ll get back to you on that. Thank you for your pitch,'” Anderson concluded.
A Lord of the Rings film directed by Wes Anderson may not be in the cards, but the franchise and the director have plenty on the way individually. And for that hilarious fusion, we will always have AI to give us a taste of film fantasy.
