Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

This is one of those days, weeks, months, or even years, where we kind of instinctively brace any time news around certain franchises breaks, notes Alasdair Stuart. But not this time! Because we’ve got actual, interesting news that we can deliver like Jeff Goldblum sprinting down the corridor at the start of The Right Stuff and yelling ‘It’s CALLED SPUTNIK!’.

…Ask your dad.

On Tolkien Reading Day, Warner Bros has announced we’re getting a new Lord of the Rings movie! And wait, come back! This one actually sounds super interesting and cool!

Shadow of the Past is described as follows:

“Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began,”

Before anyone starts really panicking, let’s look at the production team. Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson are all involved, with Boyens and Walsh co-writing alongside screenwriter Peter McGee and… Stephen Colbert.

The legendary late-night host and comedian is about to be out of a job, because fascism doesn’t have a sense of humour, and announced his involvement in the project on Tuesday night in a social media chat with Peter Jackson. This isn’t (just) stunt casting either, Colbert is a lifelong Tolkien fan and he may have come up with an idea that will make everyone happy. Or at the very least, everyone the exact same level of unhappy. In the chat with Jackson, Colbert said:

‘It’s basically chapters ‘Three Is Company’ through ‘Fog on the Barrow-downs,’ and 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 that you guys had already made?’

And for Tolkien fans doing the maths, yes, that’s apparently the Tom Bombadil chapters. The legendary figure wasn’t in the first trilogy and has been subject to a lot of discussion ever since. Bombadil is initially just a farmer, but as his time in the story continues it becomes clear that there is a lot more to him than a beard and a cool hat. A near eternal being, Bombadil played a crucial role in helping the hobbits out in the early stages of their quest and the story is, as Colbert says, oddly self-contained.

So, putting our forecasting hats on, it seems likely that what we’re looking at is a return for Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and Sean Astin (with, likely Elijah Wood too in some form given how terrible his poker face about being back is) in a narrative framed by Elanor’s quest. As Colbert says, completely faithful, to everything. Also, I’m no casting director, but I’m willing to bet Nichola Coughlan’s being looked at for Elanor, as she should be.

What a lovely, elegant idea this is! I have no skin whatsoever in the game (loved the movies, never read the books) but Colbert (whose son, screenwriter Peter McGee is also working on the project) is such a beloved figure with such a pure love for these stories I’m really excited to see him get a chance to play with them.

The movie is still being written, but we’re definitely getting The Hunt for Gollum, set between the two trilogies with Aragorn and Gandalf searching for Gollum, in December of next year.