Author of ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ to get biopic…
News is coming in from multiple outlets that Fox Searchlight and Chernin Entertainment are teaming up for a biopic of J.R.R. Tolkien, tentatively titled ‘Tolkien.’
Irish writer/director David Gleeson (‘The Front Line,’ ‘Cowboys & Angels’) is on board to provide the script for the film, which will cover Tolkien’s formative years at Pembroke College, his experiences in World War I, and how they helped in shaping the elaborate worlds in his fictional work.
According to The Los Angeles Times, ‘Tolkien’ shares similarities with ‘Finding Neverland,’ the 2004 biopic of ‘Peter Pan’ author J.M. Barrie.
‘Tolkien’ is not the first attempt to tell the legendary British author’s story. Back in 2011, fantasy author Steve Hillard was developing a feature based on his novel ‘Mirkwood: A Novel About JRR Tolkien,’ which takes a fantastical look at Tolkien’s work as a codebreaker during WWII. The project fell into limbo after a legal battle with Tolkien’s literary estate.