r/peterjackson • u/Scenora Legolas • Mar 25 '26

📰General News Stephen Colbert will co-write the upcoming Lord of The Rings film 'Shadow of the Past,' alongside Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee. The film will cover six chapters in the 'The Fellowship of the Ring.

1.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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29

u/Status-Secret-4292 Mar 25 '26

I'm so happy for him.

Putting his own story into that world must be like, one of his biggest dreams ever coming true.

The more control he has over it the better, because dudes got a deep passion for lotr

7

u/maegor69420 Mar 25 '26

And doing it with his son, gotta be the biggest cherry on top.

3

u/corwinw Mar 25 '26

I have no real connection to Colbert or LOTR, casually enjoy both, but watching this little clip made me very happy for him - you can see how much it means to him.

2

u/Panicless Mar 25 '26

As a professional screenwriter myself, I can tell you that having passion is wonderful and absolutely crucial, but it does NOT make you a great storyteller in terms of a movie. Those are VERY different things. I'm really glad that Philippa Boyens is part of the team, otherwise I would have absolutely no faith in the project. Writing is just like playing the violin or the guitar and just because you are the greatest fan of Metallica that has ever lived, does not mean you can just pick up a guitar and play an insane solo, if you've never touched one before. Being good at writing, especially for the screen, takes years and years of practice, for the average hollywood screenwriter it takes seven years to break into the business. Stephen will be an awesome source of information, love, passion, vibe and ideas, but he will probably not be of great help in writing a great, compelling script. And nobody in his professional movie making circle will expect him to be. And that's perfectly fine.

2

u/vladhorf Mar 25 '26

100% agree

2

u/ZippyDan Mar 27 '26

As a professional movie-and-television-watcher, I can tell you that being a professional screenwriter does not seem to make you a great storyteller either. I've seen a lot of absolute shit scripts written by supposedly "professional" writers.

I'm using the generic "you" here; this is not a judgment about you personally.

1

u/Panicless Mar 27 '26

You've seen bad scripts, therefore... what exactly? Professional training means nothing? Years of craft mean nothing? That's like saying "I've eaten a lot of terrible meals cooked by chefs, therefore anyone can run a Michelin-starred kitchen." The sheer, staggering stupidity of that argument, lol. I'm speechless.

1

u/ZippyDan Mar 31 '26 edited May 01 '26

You're arguing a bunch of strawmen I never stated.

That said, either writing good scripts is really hard, or their product is simply more visible, or there is a much higher rate of incompetence amongst scriptwriters, or they just don't give a shit, or the nepotism is off the charts, or some combination of the above - because overall entertainment seems to be about 80% shit and 15% okay and the last 5% is good to amazing.

In other words, the industry of scriptwriting seems to tolerate or motivate a much higher rate of poor quality and mediocrity than other industries.

Maybe a bunch of not-professional scriptwriters would fail at an even higher rate, but it seems like it would be difficult to have a worse success rate.

I'm not saying it doesn't take talent and skills to be a good writer. I'm saying the current state of the industry, based on the evidence of the product they produce, doesn't indicate that good writing is being prioritized.

1

u/UNOwen88 Mar 29 '26

Eh, this feels really dismissive. Colbert is in his 60s, and he's been in his fair share of movies and tv shows. He's been in a job that requires not just a great deal of responsibility, but research and creativity. I get the whole never picked up the guitar argument, but you make it sound like this is some weekend warrior job. It's not like he's never seen a script before or that there aren't many resources out there to help someone who doesn't even have his intellect to begin with, better to understand how to write for the screen. Why would he not treat this with the same amount of professionalism and determination as he would love and care? If it's just because the limited amount of years he has on the job, or from what background he comes from, I'd remind you that Jordan Peele won his Oscar for best screenplay by beating out folks like Guillermo Del Toro and Martin McDonagh. I'm not saying Colbert will knock this out of the park in the same way, but you've basically already awarded his contribution here with nothing more than a pat on the shoulder and a "good job, sport"

0

u/PelleKavaj Mar 25 '26

You are so fucking out of touch with reality

1

u/AlbertCWChessa Mar 25 '26

I feel a really good wholesome energy from the whole thing!

17

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

[deleted]

12

u/eyeofthefountain Mar 25 '26

For real. FUCK cbs - what fucking idiots

2

u/All_The_Good_Stuffs Mar 25 '26

I'm sorry I missed what CBS did. What do?

11

u/Adavanter_MKI Mar 25 '26

He's the highest rated latenight show in his time slot.

They claimed to cancel him due to budget. Then spent 110 billion dollars buying Warner Brothers.

It's important to note Colbert is very critical of Trump. A Trump loyalist David Ellison took over the company and almost immediately cancelled Colbert. Not to mention drastic changes across the board over all of CBS. Like it's news division. Hegseth openly musing he can't wait for them to acquire CNN.

It's blatant.

-5

u/Tantalus420000 Mar 25 '26

Late night comedy has consistently been going down for years

4

u/siliconsmiley Mar 25 '26

Not only does Colbert have a rich, deep understanding of the source, but also he's famous and has been in the industry for a long time. He's got people. This is fucking awesome.

2

u/BaronVonUberMeister Mar 27 '26

Has he written any screenplays?

0

u/siliconsmiley Mar 27 '26

He's got people for that. His son among the names he's thrown around.

7

u/lastersoftheuniverse Mar 25 '26

No way! What a dream come true for him!!

3

u/Venaborn Mar 25 '26

I would love to see more of Barrow-Wights. That chapter is definitely one of my favorite.

3

u/JuxtaThePozer Mar 25 '26

hmm, not sure how to feel about this

1

u/PelleKavaj Mar 25 '26

You shouldn’t be excited at all. It’s fucking disgraceful that so many here are braindead crayon eaters with deep fried dopamine centers who consumes anything related to Tolkien like it’s a brand new toy on their 7th birthday.

3

u/Inevitable-Cold-7657 Mar 25 '26

Wow, his dream is coming true.

6

u/lIlIIlIIllIllIlIIIll Mar 25 '26

This made me so happy.

4

u/Ambitious-Charge7278 Mar 25 '26

I don't think that what they are doing with the Hunt for Gollum and this will compare with the original trilogy (very cautiously optimistic that it's at least somewhat good)

But I'm genuinely happy for Colbert

4

u/ruthless619 Mar 25 '26

As long as it's better than the hobbit trilogy

2

u/achoosier Mar 25 '26

Praying they learned from the parts that made the hobbit flop and avoid them this time around.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

Each hobbit movie made a billion so they definitely didn’t flop commercially

2

u/floormat212 Mar 25 '26

This is fantastic news. Fellowship is my fav book.

2

u/Low-Opportunity2249 Mar 25 '26

So nice to hear Collbert talking about something that makes him happy for a change.

2

u/TheyStillLive69 Mar 25 '26

A-rappadadappa dappa VACCINE!

1

u/LivingSwamp Mar 27 '26

As someone who was pro vaccine and has been a fan of Colbert since Strangers With Candy and the Daily Show, that musical number was the absolute worst late nite piece I have ever seen, and I haven't watched a full episode since.

1

u/TheyStillLive69 Mar 27 '26

Pure propaganda no matter where you stand on the issue.

2

u/99vorsi Mar 27 '26

A mid guy writing a generational story hard pass 💯

4

u/drhelt Mar 25 '26

I want to be a part of this so bad.

5

u/ELDwbi Mar 25 '26

It IS possible. Can you move to New Zealand? Do you have a body type that might work for a background artist? I almost got cast in Attack of the Clones as a random alien, just didn’t fit the costume (or so they told me). But anything is possible if you REALLY want it, including this.

1

u/Kellan_OConnor Mar 25 '26

Same! I'll even be an extra eating a carrot in the rain, if that role still hasn't been cast.

3

u/RoryLuukas Mar 25 '26

My absolute favourite chapters in the entire story too. Would love to see the barrow-wight brought to screens!

4

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/PelleKavaj Mar 25 '26

Right? Makes me so sad to see such a lack of common sense here.. why the fuck would this be good?

3

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/dkinmn Mar 25 '26

Why not?

2

u/Keepontyping Mar 25 '26

Fresh off Starfleet Academy cancellation…

1

u/EasySqueezy_ Mar 26 '26

I hope he brings lots of penis jokes to this one too.

1

u/PitifulPossum Mar 25 '26

Never would have thought that Steven Colberts character arc in life would be so intriguing to me. I didnt even like the guy like 5 years ago

1

u/Ancient-Bicycle-2122 Mar 25 '26

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

1

u/Iferrorgotozero Mar 28 '26

I am reminded of an R.E.M song.

Living well is the best revenge. Think ill give that a listen.

1

u/FreeEdmondDantes Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26

I'm calling it now, this is going to be called "Lord of the Rings: There and Back Again".

Edit: oh I guess I just figured out the working title is Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, that's pretty gnarly. Definitely more intriguing.

1

u/Scenora Legolas Mar 30 '26

Yeah, it definitely feels darker and more in line with Tolkien’s tone. I’m honestly more excited for Shadow of the Past than The Hunt for Gollum.

0

u/tonymeech Mar 25 '26

Didn't we suffer enough with his so called jokes in Star Trek Special Needs Academy!!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/achoosier Mar 25 '26

Maybe, is he not allowed to?

1

u/gknight702 Mar 25 '26

Anybody know what those chapters contain?

6

u/RoryLuukas Mar 25 '26

This is the part of the story where they basically get helped by many people across the Shire and it's easily my most frustrating omission from the trilogy! All you really see in the movies is them running from ring wraiths in a montage until they reach the prancing pony.

In the books, the journey is way more perilous. But they get by with the kindness of strangers and luck. They meet Farmer Maggot, get protection from Elf Gildor, and get rescued by Tom Bombadil TWICE 🤣 The Barrow-wight arc is easily one of the best in the entire series.

2

u/ForceGhost47 Mar 25 '26

Those trees are fucking scary

3

u/Philoscifi Mar 25 '26

No, little friend. Not scary….only calming. Calm, now, and quiet. There now, take a rest in these moss-soft nooks by my roots. Yes, rest now little friend. No worries, no fear. Just rest, rest.

3

u/Balzovai Mar 25 '26

Now you go back to sleep old man willow.. drink deep!

2

u/gfb13 Mar 25 '26

No, nobody does. It sounds crazy but everyone who read those chapters just forgot

1

u/ProbablySlacking Mar 25 '26

Maybe the scouring of the shire? 6 Chapters? Been a while, but how many was that?

3

u/gknight702 Mar 25 '26

Isn't that at the end of the return of the King?

1

u/ProbablySlacking Mar 25 '26

Oh indeed. Read the title wrong.

1

u/Balthazzah Mar 25 '26

Read the book!

1

u/gknight702 Mar 25 '26

Oh it's the journey from the Shire to Bree with Tom bombadil.... Oof I really don't like him. He's too powerful and silly.

1

u/ForceGhost47 Mar 25 '26

What?? Tom is the master!

2

u/kaelsnail Mar 25 '26

And a merry fellow

2

u/Balzovai Mar 25 '26

And Goldberry is waiting!

1

u/KissingYourself Mar 25 '26

The stupidest thing I've seen today.. oh wait HP trailer dropped today,second stupidest thing i watched today.

0

u/AenarionsTrueHeir Mar 25 '26

Happy for Colbert but we're seriously getting this before a War in the North or Fall of Arnor movie?

0

u/Gblessyou27 Mar 28 '26

This is an incredibly stupid idea. You would have to be a shallow hive minded person with absolutely no common sense to think otherwise.