Stephen Colbert will co-write a new Lord of the Rings film after his final late-night US chat show airs in May.
The comedian and host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will work on the Hollywood production with his son, Peter McGee, a screenwriter, whose writing credits include Star Wars and Outer Banks.
The news comes after CBS announced that it would cancel Colbert’s long-running talk show this summer for financial reasons.
The 61-year-old took over the US chat show from David Letterman, who had been in the job for 22 years, in 2015.
Announcing his new venture on social media on Tuesday night, Colbert was joined by Sir Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings film-maker.
In the video, the comedian said he was inspired by the six chapters early on in The Fellowship Of The Ring, which is the first novel in the J.R.R. Tolkien series.
Colbert, a well-known Tolkien superfan, explained that he plans to adapt chapters three to eight of the bestselling novel, in which Frodo and his fellow hobbits begin their epic quest.
Speaking to Jackson in the video, Colbert said: “You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me.
“But the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in the Fellowship that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day.
“It’s basically the chapters Three Is Company through Fog On The Barrow-downs.
“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?’”
While Three Is Company – following Frodo secretly leaving the Shire with Sam and Pippin – was included in the first Hollywood film, it was largely accelerated for the movie.
The following chapters, including Old Forest, Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-downs, were not covered in the film.
These depict the hobbits passing into the Old Forest after leaving the Shire, resulting in them being rescued by the mysterious Tom Bombadil. Their treacherous journey continues across the Barrow-Downs, where the hobbits are captured once again and Bombadil intervenes.
Reportedly titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, Colbert’s film is said to follow Sam, Merry and Pippin as they retrace the first steps of their adventure.
Colbert pitched the idea to Jackson before developing it with Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote the scripts for the Lord of the Rings series and The Hobbit trilogy.
The chat show host added: “It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you [Jackson] a call but about two years ago I did, you liked it enough to talk to me about it.”
Jackson later joked about whether Colbert would have enough time to write the script, to which he replied: “I did not think I would have the time as much as I love it.
“I knew I couldn’t do that and do the show at the same time but it turns out I’m going to be free starting this summer.
“Isn’t that a eucatastrophe, right there? If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to finish the television show and I’ve got to write a movie script, but I will see you all in the Shire.”
Colbert’s involvement marks his first foray into blockbuster development, but he has previously collaborated with Jackson.
In 2013, he had a small role in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and he also directed Jackson, as well as Sir Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood, in Darrylgorn, a Lord of the Rings-themed short film released in 2019.
The spin-off was based on his cameo in The Hobbit and it was set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
Colbert’s project marks the second upcoming addition to the franchise and will follow on from The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is expected to premiere in 2027 and is directed by Andy Serkis, who takes the starring role.
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