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Kennedy French
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Getty/Everett For most people, loving “The Lord of the Rings” means watching the extended editions every few years and maybe owning a copy of the books. For Stephen Colbert, it has meant something considerably more involved.
Over the course of his career, first on “The Colbert Report” and then on “The Late Show,” Colbert has made his Tolkien obsession one of the most well-documented fan relationships in television history. He has debated Elvish linguistics on air, beaten the franchise’s own Oscar-winning screenwriter in a trivia contest and directed a Middle-earth short film starring the original cast. Peter Jackson, who has met a few Tolkien fans in his time, declared him the biggest he had ever encountered. The one thing he hasn’t done is write a feature film script.
But no matter — that lifelong devotion has landed Colbert a credit that most fans could only ever dream of. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema confirmed that Colbert will co-write “The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past” alongside screenwriter Philippa Boyens and Colbert’s son Peter McGee, with Jackson producing. The film, which draws from six chapters of “The Fellowship of the Ring” that Jackson never adapted, is set 14 years after the passing of Frodo, following Sam, Merry and Pippin as they retrace the first steps of their journey while Sam’s daughter Elanor uncovers a secret that nearly cost them everything.
It’s one of the most logical jobs for a superfan in Hollywood history. Here are seven moments that explain exactly why.
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‘LOTR’ Director Peter Jackson declared Colbert the biggest Tolkien geek he had ever met
Image Credit: ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection When Colbert visited the New Zealand set of “The Hobbit,” Jackson arranged a trivia face-off between his guest and the film’s resident Tolkien authority Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and won an Academy Award for “The Return of the King.” Colbert won.
“I have never met a bigger Tolkien geek in my life. His encyclopedic knowledge of Tolkien is spectacular, and points to a deprived childhood in some respects,” Jackson told Entertainment Weekly in 2012. That “deprived childhood” included, by Colbert’s own account, abandoning schoolwork, quitting sports and spending his teenage years absorbed in not just “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings,” but the full sweep of Tolkien’s writing. Now the man who beat the franchise’s own screenwriter at her own game is writing the next film alongside her.
