Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past Paused?

Takes this with a grain of salt but Knight Edge Media is reporting that The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past has been put on pause. Exactly what that means wasn't specified since the film is currently only in the script phase. This has been denied by WB who only says the project remains in "development" which is what the scripting phase is. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt on Gollum remains scheduled for December 17, 2027 release.

The film had started scripting with Stephen Colbert, his son Peter McGee and Philippa Boyens writing with the goal of coming out at some point in 2028 or later (it was never given a release date). Considering the average big blockbuster film takes about two to three years to make, starting now makes sense. Details have been under wraps on the film but Colbert has apparently moved to New Zealand to work on writing the film once his show had ended in May.

This does not mean the project is outright cancelled (but is a pre-cursor to it). It mostly means that if there was a deadline the team was aiming for, it probably doesn't exist anymore. Likely the writers will be paid either way so nothing is stopping them from continuing to work on the script but that doesn't mean it will ever go into production but that is normal for most scripts in Hollywood. A Lord of the Rings script simply has a higher probability of making it that far. 

So could it actually be cancelled? Most definitely. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if it is. Skydance, as of completion of the merger, will be in significant financial dire straits from day one due to an estimated $80 billion debt load on a company with a true market value of around $81 billion. Yep the new owners, the Ellison family (money made from founding Oracle), overpaid by $30 billion for inexplicable reasons.

Most projects in development or pre-production phases that isn't being paid for by others (such as existing TV shows, streaming movies for Amazon, Netflix, etc.) will most likely be cancelled. Layoffs are expected to be at least 10,000 or more while building property, and many other assets the companies have accumulated over their 100 year history are likely to be sold. Expect a lot of Hollywood history to be lost due to this merger. 

Highly likely WB will be unofficially converted to an IP holding company in a fashion similar to how Disney treats Fox which went from a studio making 15+ movies a year to getting credit for about two a year only because of sequels and the like under that studio's umbrella. All these decisions will happen pretty quickly by corporate time but still talking many months of change.