ANNECY: Critics got a sneak preview of an anime prequel to "The Lord of the Rings" at one of the world's top animation festivals in France. "The War of the Rohirrim" film, due for release in April 2024, is set 250 years before the events of the main trilogy of books by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is being directed by Kenji Kamiyama, who worked on the landmark manga film "Akira" in 1988. Though based on elements of backstory in the appendices of the original books, its central character Princess Hera was never named by Tolkien.

An opening scene shown at the Annecy Animated Film Festival in southeastern France Tuesday featured Hera riding across a rocky region and being approached by a giant eagle. Her father, the king of Rohan, is voiced by Brian Cox, a global icon after playing the patriarch in the hit series "Succession". Executive producer Philippa Boyens admitted there was not much to go on in the appendices, but that they found "three significant paragraphs" to use as the basis for the story. "We didn't want to turn her into some kind of warrior princess," Boyens said of the lead character. "This is not just about war, it's about the wreckage of war -- that suits anime so brilliantly," she added.

Boyens co-wrote the film trilogies of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" with director Peter Jackson, but said she felt "too old" for an anime and passed the baton to her daughter, Phoebe Gittins. With media companies milking familiar brands for a seemingly endless round of prequels, sequels, reboots and spin-offs, Tolkien's vast universe has been a treasure trove. Amazon has pumped more than a billion dollars into making a TV series, and is working on a video game. Warner Bros announced in February that it is planning "multiple" new films around the beloved books.