Det er officielt blevet bekræftet her til morgen, at Warner Bros. arbejder på en meget anderledes Lord of the Rings-film, en der både kommer fra et uventet sted, og tager lidt flere chancer rent narrativt og kronologisk sammenlignet med The Hunt for Gollum, der snart forventes at gå i produktion.
Warner Bros. og New Line Cinema har bekræftet via en pressemeddelelse at de arbejder på The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, og den bliver skrevet af ingen ringere end Stephen Colbert, som får hjælp fra franchise-veteran Philippa Boyens og Peter McGee. Den produceres af Peter Jackson via WingNut Films.
Det endnu mere interessante er at ulig The Hunt for Gollum, der er klemt inde imellem eksisterende fortællinger, så foregår Shadow of the Past 14 år efter den originale trilogi sluttede:
"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."
Colbert udtaler sig her yderligere om det her drømmeprojekt:
"The thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in The Fellowship [of the Ring] that y'all never developed into the first movie back in the day. It's basically the chapter 'Three is Company' through 'Fog on the Barrow-Downs.' And then 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?'"
Colbert selv kontaktede Peter Jackson for et par år siden, og siden da har de udviklet projektet, som nu er blevet officielt afsløret.