New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie From Stephen Colbert and His Son in Development at Warner Bros.
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-stephen-colbert-warner-bros-1236698684/Open linkView original on piefed.socialSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on piefed.socialhttps://variety.com/2026/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-stephen-colbert-warner-bros-1236698684/Open linkView original on piefed.social
55 replies
Yeah, weird to partner with Warner
Well, Warner Bros. is the only one who has the film rights to Lord of the Rings...
Ah fair, but even so to commit to it I guess means the work is more important to be shared than bare a grudge?
Colbert is a long time MASSIVE LoTR fan. He has made it very well known over the years on his shows. Hell, it earned him a cameo in the Hobbit films. LOL! It would not surprise me in the least that he would be willing to suck it up and partner with WB solely to get to do this passion project.
As long as he's not rattling the cage, there is (theoretically) no reason to hold a grudge.
By the same vein, I'm guessing that if they'd persuaded him to tone down the political content and critique of the Tonight Show, it might well have survived.
Hey, weird idea but stay with me: A fat orc wearing orange warpaint, slightly demented, always slightly tilting forward, occasionally shitting himself, as the main villain.
Absurdly implausible! D:
The merger hasn’t happened yet. Also, pretty soon you won’t be able to do major projects without being under the umbrella of some fascist.
It's too bad Colbert and his family have to work or they'll starve
He is. This can only be a good thing.
What in the name of Hollywood franchise filmmaking makes you think this can only be a good thing?
I'm open to it being good. I hope it's good. But I also accept that this can be a steaming pile of shit, or more likely, a bland piece of mediocre slop.
Wait a minute....now that I think about it, didn't Will Smith make a movie with his son?
Nevermind, this is going to slap, hard.
I generally trust Colbert and/or at least give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure he's done something I don't care for, but I cannot think of a single thing I'm aware he's been involved with that I haven't liked. Well, I didn't watch the Colbert Report mostly because while I found it hilarious, I could only take that concept in tiny doses in the same way some folks can't read too much of the Onion because it's just too fucking close to reality. lol.
And yeah, with his passion about LotR… I'm hopeful for good things. And I say this having not watched the Hobbit trilogy once I heard they added all the crap to it. I don't expect movies to be 100% faithful, but I want them to try. Like imho how The Expanse series - even changing up stuff from the book, but the authors were in on the writing and they basically just introduced characters sooner. It worked. And other changes they made were mostly translating from one form of media to another where different things work differently.
I hope so. Very very much! :)
Chloe Zhao was a huge Buffy fan and her enthusiasm for the show got Sarah Michelle Gellar to sign-on to her reboot.
Hollywood loves franchises and reboots because of the built-in audience, but her pilot was so bad they scrapped it entirely.
Nothing about this project is at all comparable to The Expanse, which was adapting a series of books, with the authors involvement.
This is adapting a few chapters, without the deceased authors involvement.
A much more relevant comparison would be The Rings Of Power, which was similarly based on an extremely limited scope of Tolkien's work and while I'm sure some people enjoyed that show, it was broadly very much disliked, as evidenced by it being canceled.
While others are free to disagree, I think it's fair to say that every Tolkien project, after The LotR trilogy, has been bad, or at best, just not very good.
I'm not saying that this is destined to be bad, I was just taking issue with the notion that it's guaranteed to be good.
He comes out in full bombadil hey merry doll
So Colbert will make an LOTR movie and Stewart will be president...? That feels like a good sequel to the 90s/00s.
Well just remember that there one was this massive nerd that made a pretty good movie series about the books that then made a very fucking bad movie series about the prequel, just because movie execs forced him too.
I don't think Colbert to be suckered in such a deal, but just a reminder that nobody is perfect.
Possibly the biggest of them.
So was Peter Jackson, and it worked until it didn't because he was actually good at making movies.
Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!
Oh, the River's Daugh-ter!
That would make sense. It's a whole adventure by itself and was almost like half of the first book.
It is where they got their swords though. So where do the swords come from later?
Wait, is this saying 14 years after Frodo dies the other three hobbies go to retrace their first steps of the adventure?
Stupid English and vague commas.
Edit: Too damn early, just remembered he set sail for the west shortly after the story which is also called passing.
A video shot across my doomscrolling feed in which Colbert was talking to Peter Jackson about the missing Fellowship chapters to do with Crickhollow and the barrow downs, so I guess it'll somehow be about those events.
Nobody tell them
Well it's obviously more than 14 years IRL but hopefully the original cast could pull it of!
That is intriguing. I am really curious how they will pull that off.
Apparently covering from the sale of Bag End, through Crickhollow, the Old Forest–meeting Tom Bombadil–to the Barrow Downs.
I expect this could be an interesting movie, I have missed these parts. They are less directly connected to the story of the ring (except where the Nazgûl appear), but I think it adds to the understanding of the background events occurring at that time in Middle Earth.
I for one welcome any Tom Bombadil.
Just as long as its not played by Jack black as hes a massive cockwomble. Matt Berry or gtfo
Really that could happen anytime so it's fine doing it later
Its a pretty cool concept, I like the Breeland stories. Although I mostly remember them from Lord of the Rings Online rather than the books 😅 Hope it will be good!
I wish that game wasn't so damn grindy. I play it every few years for a while before I get bored with it. :/ But it's mostly "go off and kill X of these animals" or "go here, then go here, then go here" crap. It's fun to explore the world.... except.... all the areas below your level are simply boring and all the areas above your level are go-here-and-die-immediately bullshit, and there's not really anything to do.
Almost sounds like it's a classic MMORPG :D
I have to try to get into it one of these days, but since I never did before it might feel dated to me at this point.
A shallow response I know, but … what the hell timeline is this!!??
I believe, present article excluded, it is generally characterized as "the worst". :)
I would also like to make a movie. I will ask my dad to help me get it into production.
Oh this is a great idea. I haven't read the books in over 20 years. It isn't creating new stuff, it's just adapting stuff that hasn't been adapted yet.
I'm ... actually a little disappointed? This sounds interesting and I'm looking forward to it, but I was really hoping he'd follow through on The Chronicles of Amber series.
So a movie based on his cameo?
Yeah that's one for the completionists, I'll pass.
It's arguably the best chapter from all the books and they left it out. You don't need to read all the missing bits, but maybe take some time to meet Tom and Goldberry?
Ho ho Tom Bombadil-o that chapter?
I don't know for sure-o,
but that an im-pli-ca-tion
Thank god!
Variety is not a trusted source. Is this posted anywhere else?
He and Peter Jackson posted a video announcing it yesterday, it's very much legit.
Hmmm..nah, this will not end well.
The fuck you mean passing? Frodo never died, he went to Valinor. Not even the first sentence in and it's fucked.
Me right now, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc
Valinor does not grant them immortality. It would heal them and allow them to live out the remainder of their lives in peace but they will eventually die.
His leaving for Valinor is his passing.
So he’s cool with ignoring the dictatorship then huh
Sauron?
Warner Bros being sold to a company run by the Ellison family (David Ellison, son of One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison). Or to quote Pete Kegsbreath about CNN: "The sooner David Ellison gets control of that network the better" (may not be an exact quote, this was weeks ago)