J.R.R. Tolkein Biopic in the Works?

The LA Times reports that David Gleeson is currently writing the script for a biopic about Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkein. Tentatively titled TOLKEIN, the film is set to be produced by Chernin Entertainment for Fox Searchlight.

Read the original report here.

Gleeson (Cowboys and Angels) plans to interweave Tolkein's life story and the writer's creation of Middle Earth into his screenplay.

Tolkein was born in South Africa in 1892, grew up in England and served in World War I. A close friend of C.S. Lewis, Tolkien received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II in 1972. The best known of Tolkein's works are, of course, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

With Peter Jackson's super-successful adaptations of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings series, and his Hobbit trilogy -- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is set to debut on December 13 -- any Tolkein biopic is bound to draw a profit.

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