The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past Movie Announced

Sir Peter Jackson and Stephen Colbert (yep the late night host) revealed that they are working on a new movie. Currently called "The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past" will be written by Colbert, Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Boyens as producers. Currently no director but there isn't a script yet and so no release date.

In the video below making the announcement, Colbert said "You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me, but the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in the Fellowship that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day."

The chapters Colbert is referring to is In The Fellowship of the Rings

Chapter 3: Three Is Company

Chapter 4: A Short Cut to Mushrooms

Chapter 5: A Conspiracy Unmasked

Chapter 6: The Old Forest

Chapter 7: In the House of Tom Bombadil

Chapter 8: Fog on the Barrow-downs

The overarching story is described as "The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is set 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." A timeline breakdown indicates Elanor is 14 years old at this time setting but the movie may decide she needs to be older

"Frodo passing" is a simplification of the event depicted in The Return of the King when Frodo leaves for the Undying Lands (Valinor) along with Bilbo, Gandalf and the elves. Valinor is kind of JRR Tolkien's version heaven so could view it as a form of death since there is no return from there. Does make for a simpler shorthand even if technically inaccurate.

These are the extent of the details since the movie has not really begun the script phase in earnest since Colbert will be hosting his show until its official end on May 21 and then will move onto this project. It sounds like it will be a mix of events 14 years later that will then flashback to events in those chapters that were skipped over by the movie, much to the anger of many die hard fans. 

The six chapters are very early beginning as Frodo, Sam and Pippin leave Hobbiton and quickly discover they are being hunted by Black Riders (Ringwraiths). Merry joins the group after helping them where they enter the Old Forest and are rescued by Tom Bombadil from an angry tree. After resting with Tom, they are captured by a Barrow-wight resulting in Tom having to rescue them again. 

From a movie flow perspective, it was smart choice to skip the chapters as they didn't really do much story wise except show the growing bond the four Hobbits form but later events accomplished the same goal. Fans love Tom Bombadil but story wise he accomplished nothing except be this strange but charming god-like character who rescues the Hobbits a few times and then exits the story entirely. (Image source)