Stephen Colbert to Co-Write a ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie

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(Left) Host Stephen Colbert of ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’. Photo: Mary Ellen Matthews/CBS ©2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Right) Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn Elessar in director Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.’ Photo: Warner Bros.

Preview:

‘The Late Show’ host Stephen Colbert will co-write a ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie.
He’ll work with his son, Peter McGee, and Philippa Boyens.
The working title is ‘The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past’.

While he’s a well-known Tolkien scholar and ‘Lord of the Rings’ superfan (who had a cameo in one of the ‘Hobbit’ movies), we still didn’t expect to see comedian and late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert actually writing a movie set in the world of Middle-earth.

But with ‘The Late Show’ set to end in May (after Paramount/CBS decided to cancel it), Colbert now finds himself with the time to realize a long-held dream. He’ll work with his son, writer Peter McGee and ‘Rings’ movie veteran scribe Philippa Boyens on a new movie called ‘The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past.’

Colbert and his son came up with the basic idea years ago, but Colbert hasn’t had the time (or, as he admits, the courage) to pitch the idea.

What’s the story of ‘The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the past’?

(L to R) Sean Austin, Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’. Photo: New Line Cinema.

Here’s Colbert talking about the movie:

“The thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day. It’s basically chapters ‘Three Is Company’ through ‘Fog on the Barrow-downs,’ and I thought, Oh wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?”

He approached ‘Rings’ movie supremo Peter Jackson (and New Line/Warner Bros.) and so now Colbert has a new gig. See more at the video link on Instagram.

What else is happening with ‘LOTR’ movies?

Andy Serkis as Gollum in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’. Photo: New Line Cinema.

Right now, the next ‘Rings’ movie to start production will be the Andy Serkis-directed ‘The Hunt for Gollum’, which has a December 17, 2027 release date on the books.