Peter Jackson said Stephen Colbert ’s new Lord of the Rings film project gave the comedian “something to focus on” after CBS cancelled his long-running late-night talk show. Colbert, an avid fan of JRR Tolkien ’s fantasy series who had a cameo in Jackson’s 2013 film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug , is writing a new Lord of the Rings film titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past . He said in March that the idea emerged while he was re-reading the first volume in the series, The Fellowship of the Ring , and realised that the sections left out of Jackson’s original film trilogy could become their own story. He then sketched out a plot with his screenwriter son Peter McGee, who appeared in The Hobbit film with him 13 years ago. Speaking to Variety at the Cannes film festival, where Jackson was honoured with a Palme d’Or on opening night, the director said Colbert had already been developing the Tolkien adaptation before learning that CBS would end The Late Show .…