I was browsing the news and came across an odd little article about Stephen Colbert. It seems that his hosting duties for The Late Show will be coming to an end in May. The long running show is being cancelled.
But the odd thing is Colbert’s next move. He’s going to be working on a new Lord Of The Rings movie with Peter Jackson. I must say that isn’t anything I would have ever guessed. I turns out that Stephen Colbert is a Tolkien super fan.
He says that he read the six chapters near the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring covering the early part of the adventure including Tom Bombadil. Colbert’s son, Patrick, is a screenwriter and the two of them worked on the idea together. Then Colbert called up Pete Jackson two years ago and pitched the idea to him. Jackson liked the idea ad they moed forward with it. Then Phillipa Boyen, who worked on the writing of the LOTR films, got involved.
Much like the reboot of Firefly, I’m optimistic about this project. I always liked the Tom Bombadil character in LOTR even though very little of him is seen in the book. I am curious as to what they are going to do. I am hoping that since Colbert is a supefan he is going to care about getting the details right. But with such little detail given about the character (unless there is more about him in the History of Middle Earth books?) I’m wondering how much they’ll have to add int the story. Therein lies the potential to horribly screw up the movie.
Colbert definitely has comedy chops. He excels in that arena. Again, I’m hoping that since he is a superfan that he won’t end up making this movie a farce. I trust that is he has Peter Jackson and Philip Boyen on board that they will also keep things on the rails and not veer off into la la land.
What about you, my Hordeling? Optimistic or pessimistic about the project? Leave a comment and let me know.
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This is probably going to be a long comment. This is one of those topics (one of many such topics, some would say) where I have this irrational fixation that you can’t possibly understand my point unless you know All the Little Details. (See, that was a needless tangential statement right there.)
What really caught my eye first in this post was the title. Not ‘Stephen Colbert does Tolkien’ (which I’d already heard), but the question mark after it.
Why SHOULDN’T Colbert do Tolkien?
I’d already seen some other people’s reaction to this news. (I’m spending way too much time watching You Tube videos.)(Another needless tangential statement) Colbert? Doing Tolkien? He’s a Comedy Writer (and a leftist too), what can he possibly know about Tolkien?
And other comments were even more stupid. There was one really stupid person in particular who insisted that this project would “ruin” (his word) Tolkien not just because Colbert was a leftist comedy writer, but because Philppa Boyens is involved, and she’s an outside agitator who’s trying to re-brand the franchise. I don’t think this idiot knows that Boyens is one of the co-writers of the original movies.
Like Jim, I am very hopeful that that this project turns out well. A very charitable attitude for you, Jim, considering your heated criticism when the Hobbit movies were being made that they were just a naked cash grab (woops, sorry another needless tangential statement).
But even if it turns out to be a complete bomb, who cares? (Well, except for the investors who won’t get their money back, and the movie making people whose professional will be tarnished.) There will no effect at all on Tolkien’s literary reputation. This has happened before. The Rankin & Bass tv cartoons. The Ralph Bakshi movie. Really bad, but no effect on the literary reputation. Or, perhaps a slight positive effect, as they prodded some people (including me) to read that books. If that’s all this new movie does, I’m fine with that.
Gee, this is a lot shorter than I thought it would be!
Did I say it was just a cash grab? I don’t recall. If so, then I stand by that. I do remember saying that it didn’t need to be a whole trilogy of movies like LOTR. I didn’t think there was enough story in The Hobbit to warrant that much screen time. I stand corrected on that statement. Although, I do think they padded the Hobbit films some to get it to be long enough for a trilogy.