American television host Stephen Colbert is set to co-write a new film in the The Lord of the Rings franchise, marking his next major project after the end of The Late Show in May.
Colbert will collaborate with Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee on the project, which will be the second of two upcoming films in the series. The announcement was made by Colbert alongside filmmaker Peter Jackson on social media.
“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,” Colbert said.
“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?
And I started talking it over with my son Peter, who’s also a screenwriter, and we worked out what we thought would work, especially as a framing device for that story,” he added.
“It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you a call, but about two years ago I did. You liked it enough to talk to me about it, and ever since then, the two of us have been working with the brilliant Philippa Boyens on how to develop this story.”
A longtime fan of author J.R.R. Tolkien, Colbert said executives at Warner Bros., including Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, supported the idea.
The film, with the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, will follow Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum, which is currently in development with Andy Serkis attached as director.
Colbert will work with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Boyens — the team behind the original The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies — on the project.
“Fourteen 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,” the synopsis read.
Colbert, best known for hosting The Late Show, will see the programme air its final episode on May 21 after it was cancelled by CBS last year.
Meanwhile, Hunt for Gollum will feature Kate Winslet in an undisclosed role, Ian McKellen returning as Gandalf and Serkis reprising his role as Gollum. Elijah Wood has also hinted at returning as Frodo.
Produced by Zane Weiner along with Jackson, Walsh and Boyens, Hunt for Gollum is scheduled to be released in theatres on December 17, 2027.
