Stephen Colbert doesn’t have to worry about his next gig after he signs off as host on CBS’ The Late Show on May 21. The late-night host will be embarking on what is arguably his dream project: adapting the next Lord of the Rings movie from New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.
The tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is set to be written by Colbert, Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee. The trio will join forces with the wizards behind the New Line franchise: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Boyens.
Colbert on Monday revealed that the film will be based on “Fogs on the Barrow-downs,” the eighth chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring, where Hobbits are trapped by a Barrow-wight in an unnatural fog. The story also includes a fan favorite character omitted from the previous films, Tom Bombadil. The movie will be derived from chapters three through eight of Tolkien’s landmark book.
The next film in the series is Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, directed by Gollum himself, Andy Serkis and adapted by Walsh, Boyens, Arty Papageorgiou and Phoebe Gittins. The movie is due out on December 17, 2027.
The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is set 14 years after the passing of Frodo. Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.
“You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me, but the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in the Fellowship that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day,” Colbert said in a video with Peter Jackson announcing the project.
The late-night talk show host pondered if they would “make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies” that had already been made.
Watch below for a Late Show clip in which Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, along with director Peter Jackson, try to stump Colbert with LOTR trivia.
The irony here in this whole deal is that while Colbert is ending his employment with the David Ellison owned Paramount this May, he’ll ultimately be back in business with them once again after they take control of Warner Bros. which is expected before Q4 this year.
Jackson joked with Colbert about finding the time to adapt the film, to which the Late Show host joked, “It turns out I’m going to be free starting this summer.” Colbert said that if he were still hosting the late-night show, he couldn’t have adapted the book at the same time he hosted the CBS show.
Altogether, the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit series, across six movies, have grossed more than $5.9 billion worldwide.
from deadline.com