{"id":9449,"date":"2026-03-26T01:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T01:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=9449"},"modified":"2026-03-26T01:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T01:03:07","slug":"stephen-colberts-next-move-after-cbs-writing-a-lord-of-the-rings-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=9449","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert\u2019s next move after CBS? Writing a ‘Lord of the Rings’ film"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Late-night TV and Middle-earth just might be the crossover you didn\u2019t know you needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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News of a new film that\u2019s set in J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s beloved world is plenty of cause to celebrate for Lord of the Rings <\/em>fans, but the latest project comes with a wild twist. Stephen Colbert and LOTR<\/em> trilogy director Peter Jackson just announced<\/a> that The Late Show <\/em>host will co-write the movie, titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past<\/em>, adapting Tolkien\u2019s timeless tales of elves, hobbits, and difficult choices.<\/p>\n

Colbert, a self-proclaimed LOTR<\/em> superfan<\/a>, will jump headfirst into the project after wrapping up a more than a decade-long run as the host of The Late Show. <\/em>CBS announced that it would cancel his show last year, a decision conspicuously timed with Colbert\u2019s criticism of parent company Paramount\u2019s $16 million settlement with the Trump administration over a 60 Minutes <\/em>interview. Regulatory concerns over the merger between Paramount and Skydance also loomed large in CBS\u2019s decision to unceremoniously end Colbert\u2019s long Late Show <\/em>run, though the network claimed the decision was not related to the show\u2019s performance or broader concerns at Paramount.<\/p>\n

Shadow of the Past<\/h2>\n

The late-night TV loss is Hollywood\u2019s gain. Colbert came up with the LOTR<\/em> pitch with his son, Peter, a screenwriter, and connected with Jackson over his idea for a narrative that would bring to life some early chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring <\/em>that didn\u2019t make their way into the canonical film trilogy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in The Fellowship <\/em>that y\u2019all never developed into the first movie back in the day,\u201d Colbert told Jackson in the announcement video. \u201cIt\u2019s basically the chapter \u2018Three Is Company\u2019 through \u2018Fog on the Barrow-Downs.\u2019 And I thought, \u2018Oh, 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?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans of the trilogy will no doubt be pleased to learn that Tom Bombadil will finally get his due. Those chapters cover some of the most mysterious bits of the saga, when the hobbits encounter a mystical being known as Tom Bombadil, who rescues them from a mishap in a labyrinthine area known as the Barrow-Downs. Bombadil is an enigmatic character who speaks in riddles and appears uniquely immune to the dark pull of the ring. Because that chunk of source material is so whimsical compared with much of the fellowship\u2019s later slog, it\u2019s easy to see how Colbert\u2019s wit could bring the story to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The many tales of Middle-Earth<\/h2>\n

The realm of Middle-earth is rife for more storytelling. While the original three films covered a lot of ground, even their extended editions rush through plenty of rich source material from the books. Shadow of the Past <\/em>is a unique opportunity to explore some interesting corners of the original trilogy\u2014but it isn\u2019t the only one in the works.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Late-night TV and Middle-earth just might be the crossover you didn\u2019t know you needed. News of a new film that\u2019s set in J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s beloved world is plenty of cause to celebrate for Lord of the Rings fans, but the latest project comes with a wild twist. Stephen Colbert and LOTR trilogy director Peter Jackson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brand-spotlights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}