10 Incredible Fan Films That Totally Succeeded Where Hollywood Failed

2. The Hunt For Gollum

Debuting at the London International Festival of Science Fiction, The Hunt For Gollum is the creation of an entire team of amateur British filmmakers. Done for only £3000, the film runs for an impressive 38 minutes and manages to create an impressive vision on Middle Earth using Tolkien's own appendices.

Picking up between Bilbo returning from his adventures in the The Hobbit, but before Frodo leaves in The Lord Of The Rings - ironically the only bit of the story unmolested by Peter Jackson - the story centres around Aragorn's quest to stop Gollum revealing information about the One Ring. Dispatched at the behest of Gandalf, the film features impressive performances from those charged with filling the boots of Viggo Mortensen, Sir Ian McKellen and Liv Tyler.

Since its release it's racked up well over 1.5 million views on YouTube, with the creators claiming that the total surpasses 12 million when factoring in the other sites, streams and downloads. Richly deserved as well, as it looks fantastic and more than does justice to the richness of the world it's set in. In fact so impressive is the film that the Tolkien estate, notorious for clamping down hard on any violations of copyright, have allowed it to remain online for over 5 years now.