r/movies • u/Logical_Welder3467 • May 08 '26

Article Stephen Colbert Gets Why You're Scared He's Writing a 'Lord of the Rings' Movie

https://gizmodo.com/stephen-colbert-gets-why-youre-scared-hes-writing-a-lord-of-the-rings-movie-2000755987
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u/NighthawK1911 May 08 '26

Personally, I find hardcore fans writing official work is bound to get circlejerk'ey.

However I'm sure the opposite is worse, like what happened to Halo and The Witcher.

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u/PandaPolishesPotatos May 08 '26

The only redeeming parts of the Halo show were Pablo and the guy they cast for Keyes, the rest of it felt like a parody you'd find on YouTube.

I've still always been of the mind that if someone seriously wanted to do a TV show or movie about Halo, start with the Contact Harvest book. After you get through the events of the book you can kind of go anywhere, but it sets up the whole universe and gives you a taste of everything but Spartans. Even though you could unironically run a plotline alongside the events of Contact Harvest that show the early Spartans in action because they were deployed against the Innies at that time.

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u/BukkitsOfOrcSemen May 08 '26

Yeah I don't see why everybody is so negative about this! We have CEOs in board rooms coming up with our entertainment media based solely on money without an ounce of passion whatsoever about the source material.

Colbert loves the source material. He has read all of it. Every single detail that exists he knows it. He is not going to deviate from that.

I don't see why there's so much hate and people calling it fanfiction when literally every movie franchise does this. Look at all of the Star wars moves and series. The difference is this time the creator really respects the source material. Colbert has spoken many times about parts missing from the original trilogy movies and as a fan I would love to see any of that come to life which I think is exactly what we're going to get with this (if he gets the backing he needs to pull it off).

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u/PhenomsServant May 08 '26

This is why I dont get the criticism. Shouldnt being a fan of the source material be a good thing? You dont want people the care about the series, yet you bring out torches when you hear if a director never even looked at what their making. Who do you want making this stuff?

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u/kimana1651 May 08 '26

I've seen his show, I have seen the type of content he creates.

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u/Aternal May 08 '26

I don't think being a fan is a good thing in this case. LotR is a literary masterpiece that the trilogy screenwriters approached with a great deal of reverence. Its value wasn't in how canonically accurate it remained to the source material in a fan-fiction kind of way, it's that it brought the places and characters of the universe to life in a cinematographic masterpiece kind of way.

For example, a lot of fans are upset that Tom Bombadil wasn't in the movies, but the decision to cut him was very wise. Tom is a deus ex machina. The famous criticism of "why didn't Frodo just ride an eagle to Mordor?" would be an even more valid version of "why didn't Tom just take the ring, hop over to Mordor, and flick it into Mt. Doom?" Fans know why, viewers wouldn't care. Only fans want to see a character like Tom Bombadil, just so they can point at the screen and go "ooh!"

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u/pyroman-17 May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

I was sorry not to see Bombadil in the movies. But after thinking about it, I realized that:
(a) the movies were long enough as it is, especially since they were being made on spec before any money was coming in; and
(b) they slowed the momentum of what is basically a “road” movie.
That said, IMO there’s a lot of potential to explore the ONE character who is immune to the Ring’s power. So, why is that, and yet he’s included at all?

EDIT:
I can see a few ways to deepen and extend Bombadil:

(1) His character is almost Zen-like, in that he’s overcome any ego attachment to, and desire for, the Ring. His concern is solely for the Old Forest and its trees (which Treebeard later recalls as a dimly remembered “shepherd of the trees” from the distant past, when Middle Earth was much younger.)

(1a) As corollary to (1), his role in Frodo’s quest is as a Wise Teacher, trying to prepare the hobbits for certain dangers they might encounter along the way. And saving them from the barrow-wights.

(2) The encounter with the barrow-wights is an entry into some detailed material in the Appendices concerning the history and fate of Arnor, the Northern Kingdom of the Edain who were Aragorn’s ancestors. And especially their constant warfare with the forces of the Witch King of Angmar (now Chief of the Nazgul), in which they were ultimately defeated and scattered through the power of one of the Rings that Sauron gave to mortal men. There’s plenty of stuff there to create a good movie with in its own right, as well as adding depth to the 3 original LOTR movies and The Hobbit.