{"id":347289,"date":"2026-03-25T16:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/347289\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:05:07","slug":"stephen-colbert-tapped-to-write-new-lord-of-the-rings-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/347289\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert tapped to write new ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLord of the Rings\u201d superfan Stephen Colbert <\/a>was tapped to write the latest installment of the wildly popular movie series, studio officials said Wednesday, seizing on the TV personality’s unexpected time off this summer.<\/p>\n

Warner Bros. had “Rings” director Peter Jackson make the announcement in comedic fashion, speaking to a YouTube camera<\/a> and telling fans he’d lined up “a very special partner that we’re working with and you can see for yourself.”<\/p>\n

That’s when he appeared to pull up a video chat and a figure hiding behind a book, Colbert. <\/p>\n

“You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me,” Colbert said.<\/p>\n

CBS announced last year<\/a> that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was being taken off the air despite the program’s longtime critical acclaim. The last show is set for May 21.<\/p>\n

The 10-time Emmy winner <\/a>said he’s always wanted to partner with his screenwriter son Peter McGee to ink a “Rings” script.<\/p>\n

“And it took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you a call,” Colbert said. “But about two years ago, I did. You liked it enough to talk to me about it.” <\/p>\n

Along the way, Colbert said he’s been consulting with Oscar-winning “Rings” writer Philippa Boyens, New Line Cinema President Richard Brener and Warner Bros. co-chairs Pam Abdy<\/a> and Mike De Luca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“And I could not be happier to say that they loved it and so that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be working on,” Colbert said. <\/p>\n

The CBS cancellation was the green light, Colbert said, he needed to dive into “Rings.”<\/p>\n

“I knew I couldn\u2019t do that and do the show at the same time,” he said. “But it turns out I\u2019m going to be free starting this summer.” <\/p>\n

Between 2001 and 2003, fans rushed to theaters for the original “Rings” trilogy before a trio of “Hobbit” movies hit screens from 2012 to 2014. There’s also a “Hunt for Gollum” work in pre-production.<\/p>\n

Colbert and his son are set to adapt several chapters from J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s classic \u201cThe Fellowship of the Ring\u201d novel for the new film that’ll serve as a sequel to the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trilogy.<\/p>\n

The new film will follow the series\u2019 hobbit characters Sam, Merry and Pippin as they \u201cretrace the first steps of their adventure,\u201d following the death of Frodo Baggins, the trilogy\u2019s main character, Warner Bros. said.<\/p>\n

The original 2001-03 film trilogy \u2014 based on Tolkien\u2019s novels \u201cThe Fellowship of the Ring,\u201d \u201cThe Two Towers\u201d and \u201cThe Return of the King\u201d \u2014 followed Frodo and a fellowship of characters on their journey to destroy the One Ring and the series\u2019 main villain, Sauron.<\/p>\n

The third film, \u201cThe Return of the King,\u201d won 11 Oscars, tied for the most for any single work with \u201cTitanic\u201d<\/a> and \u201cBen-Hur.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLord of the Rings\u201d superfan Stephen Colbert was tapped to write the latest installment of the wildly popular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-347289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}