The Lord of the Rings will return to the big screen in 2027 with Andy Serkis' The Hunt for Gollum, and it's already setting itself up for success.

The director explained that "every New Zealand schoolchild has a fascination with the moa," a flightless bird similar to an ostrich that went extinct 600 years ago.

The genetics company is teaming up with director Peter Jackson to resurrect an animal resembling the giant moa, an extinct species native to New Zealand that died out about 600 years ago. Colossal is the same company that made waves in April for resurrecting wolves with the genetic properties of the extinct dire wolf.