Stephen Colbert is writing a Lord of the Rings movie with his son

Stephen Colbert, famous devotee to J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, is co-writing a Lord of the Rings movie with his son.

Warner Bros. announced early Wednesday that Colbert will script The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past along with series veteran Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee, Colbert's son. Producer Peter Jackson revealed Colbert's involvement in a social media video that introduced a "very special partner" on the film.

"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," Colbert told Jackson. "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."

Colbert said that a few years ago, while talking with his son, he thought of a potential framing device for the film, which follows a new adventure for Sam, Merry and Pippin 14 years after the passing of Frodo.

"You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me," Colbert said. "But 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."

"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?'" added Colbert.

Shadow of the Past follows a long series of Lord of the Rings adaptations, including from Jackson. After his trilogy of films, the producer/director created the trilogy of prequels based on Tolkien's The Hobbit. He then helped produce the anime The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim in 2024.

Meanwhile, Shadow of the Past will come after Andy Serkis' upcoming The Hunt for Gollum, which is also produced by Jackson and is set to arrive in theatres next year.

Then there is the Amazon Prime prequel series — unconnected to Jackson's adaptations — The Rings of Power, which was widely reported as being the most expensive show ever created when its first season released in 2022.

With a price tag estimated around $1 billion US, it received generally favourable reviews. While filming has reportedly wrapped, the show's third season does not yet have a confirmed release date. 

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