One of the biggest headscratchers moviegoers have had has been why there has been such a huge delay between the completion and release of the upcoming biopic, Tolkien. While the movie completed production in 2017, it hadn’t received a release date until a couple months ago. While there had been some speculation, no one has known anything definitive, until now.
We have received an exclusive press release that informed us that the movie is slated to feature a post credits scene in which Nicholas Hoult’s Tolkien meets a young CS Lewis at Oxford played by Tom Holland (Spider-Man Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War). Further, part of the delay for the release was working around Holland’s very busy schedule and to allow for some rewrites that will help shape a new shared universe of films, tentatively dubbed the Inklings Cinematic Universe.
“Nothing like this has ever been tried before in terms of historical films or biopics,” says the projects creative consultant John Fuller. “But when you look at movies like Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, First Man, and Hidden Figures there was a clear connective narrative thread. The same is true for movies like Dunkirk, The Kings Speech and Darkest Hour. This was our chance to do something different by having shared actors weave in and out of the respective films.”
With studios vying to find the next big shared universe and many of them failing, it only makes since that a studio would be interested in this project as it has what many of them have lacked and that is a shared story that can be told over the course of the series of films. It has been cited one of the reasons the Marvel shared universe has done so well, and there is little doubt that this can do the same. Sources close to the production say that Disney’s Bob Iger was keenly interested in this project during the Disney buy out of Fox for that very reason.
Fuller goes on to say that, “We figured with the enduring popularity of the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the rest of their circle that it would be a create way of showing how their lives intersected with each other and influenced their respective works.”
He does admit some parts of the project will be easier than others, saying “The hard part is going to be making the Charles Williams biopic appeal to average movie goers .But if Ant-Man, Aquaman, or SHAZAM! can be box-office hits, then so can Williams.”
Look for Tolkien out this May, Lewis in November 2019, Williams in April 2020, Lewis and Tolkien: Dawn of Inklings in July 2020 with phase one to wrap up with The Inklings in November, 2020. Click here to see our exclusive press release.
UPDATE: APRIL FOOLS!