Colbert to co-write new LOTR film with Peter Jackson

Awesome! I never knew anyone so knowledgable of Tolkien lore as Stephen Colbert. This will be a dream come true for him. And a paying job he will soon be in need of!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/962516223003204

What in Colbert's resume would make anyone think he can adapt Tolkien?
Hope he's a bigger fan of Tolkien than he is of his own professed Catholic faith.

Like The Boys, it'll be probably be an allegory about Trump. I mean, that really is Colbert's fixation -- he is one person in the world that TDS can literally apply to with zero doubt.

And the worst part is that Trump will be out of office by the time it's released, making it dated politics and extended repetitiveness. For those not bored to death with the constant monotony of Trump in the news, be sure to watch the applicable entertainment industry output that will give you an extra dosage of "no-escape-from Trump" (NEFT).

Quote:Like The Boys, it'll be probably be an allegory about Trump. I mean, that really is Colbert's fixation -- he is one person in the world that TDS can literally apply to with zero doubt.

No..Colbert is way too much of a connoisseur of Tolkien to reduce it to some sort of outdated political allegory. Believe it or not there are creative new fantasies coming out all the time that have absolutely nothing to do with the orange clown, though even Tolkien has been the target of such banal reductionism.

Google AI

"J.R.R. Tolkien explicitly denied that The Lord of the Rings was an allegory for World War II, stating the core story was developed before 1939. However, writing during the conflict and his experiences as a WWI veteran influenced the book’s themes of industrial destruction, sacrifice, and the fight against a dehumanizing, tyrannical evil."

Again, what in his writing credits makes anyone think he can actually adapt a Tolkien story?
I mean, there's tons of diehard fans of Tolkien who simply don't have the writing chops... even with their "emerging screenwriter" son, with zero writing credits on IMDB.

Colbert has a long history of writing. What makes you think he isn't qualified?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert

Tolkien was a professor of medieval literature, who spent his life teaching Beowulf to his students. It became a big part of who he was. So he took a shot at writing a medieval-ish Saga of his own, very successfully, filling it with allegory and symbolism illustrative of a world and worldview that's totally alien and abhorrent to today's 21'st century left.

It's difficult for me to imagine what possible affinity Stephen Colbert has to Tolkien and to what Tolkien was trying to express.

It's another illustration of the pathology of today's entertainment industry. Instead of creating anything new, which might be risky, those in charge acquire what are already beloved intellectual properties. Doctor Who, Marvel comics, Star Wars, Star Trek... and the Lord of the Rings can't be far behind.

Instead of having to generate an entirely new fan-base, which is hard and very uncertain, they think that they can produce product with a massive fan-base already built in.

Then they think: 'I've got this huge platform with a fan-base already cooked in - I can use it to promote the politics and the social change agenda that I believe in!'

And as we just saw with 'Star Trek - Star Fleet Academy' (and the woke 'Snow White' remake, and Doctor Who...) fans of the real thing are turned off and the transformed woke version bombs, crashes and burns.

Stephen Colbert is co-writing a new Lord of the Rings film titled "The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past" with his son and Philippa Boyens, a veteran screenwriter from the original trilogy. This project will explore early chapters from "The Fellowship of the Ring" that were not included in the original film adaptation. [...] the movie will follow Sam, Merry and Pippin fourteen years after Frodo's death as they retrace their adventure. The chapters Colbert references in the video feature Tom Bombadil, a powerful character from the books that wasn't featured in Peter Jackson's trilogy.

So it's not a wholly made up story, but constrained to details of what was actually written by Tolkien in that area of the first volume (albeit recalled from that future perspective of those three nostalgically revisiting the details). As well as having to fit coherently with Jackson's older films.

And Philippa Boyens is obviously going to do most of the heavy lifting on the screenplay. With Stephen and Peter (his son, not Jackson) having advisory roles and stepping in with tweaks and re-written sections when they notice something straying from canon or whatever the original conception was that they sold Jackson on.

In contrast, Amazon's "The Rings of Power" had all sorts of liberties in terms of how to narrowly fill the broad, sketchy outlines of Tolkien's appendices.

Quote:So he took a shot at writing a medieval-ish Saga of his own, very successfully, filling it with allegory and symbolism illustrative of a world and worldview that's totally alien and abhorrent to today's 21'st century left.

How's that world abhorrent to the 21st left? I'm pretty sure lots of them enjoy fantasy epics which accounts for Game Of Throne's enormous popularity. "Leftists" as you stereotype them are actually complex and normal human beings typically fond of the arts and film and literature. Just like me!

Quote:It's difficult for me to imagine what possible affinity Stephen Colbert has to Tolkien and to what Tolkien was trying to express.

Colbert became a superfan of Tolkien when he read LOTR in his teen years just as I did. What specific affinity is necessary to be totally into the greatest fantasy novel of all time? When he was 10 his father and two brothers died in a plane crash. Maybe he needed the imaginative escapism of Tolkien to give his life new meaning and value. Whatever the reason, it definitely worked and set him on a course for stardom.

(Mar 27, 2026 06:39 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: Colbert has a long history of writing. What makes you think he isn't qualified?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert

Where's writing credits beyond comedy, sketch comedy, etc.? Anything even vaguely hinting at dramatic feature length film? @_@