See Nicholas Hoult as Lord of the Rings author in first Tolkien biopic photos

Tolkien type Movie genre Biopic

It’s a big day for Lily Collins. As the first footage of the Okja actress opposite Zac Efron in the Ted Bundy biopic surfaces online, so do the first photos of her opposite Nicholas Hoult in the biopic about The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Born 1892 in South Africa, Tolkien found himself orphaned as a teen after the death of his mother and father. Tolkien, the film directed by Dome Karukoski, follows these formative years as he attends school in Birmingham and finds companionship in a group of outcasts.

The stills offer snapshots from the author’s life, including his younger years with future wife Edith (Collins) and the approach of World War I, events that would come to impact Tolkien’s work with The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. His war experience, for example, would inspire The Fellowship of the Rings, while his relationship with Edith informed literary romances like Aragorn and Arwen (played in Peter Jackson’s live-action films by Viggo Mortensen and Liv Tyler).

In the lone shot of Hoult’s Tolkien, the wall is layered with various maps, scribblings of the elvish language, and sketches of giant spiders that would help craft the fantasy world of Middle-earth.

Tolkien, written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford, also stars Colm Meaney, Anthony Boyle, Patrick Gibson, Tom Glynn-Carney, Craig Roberts, Laura Donnelly, Genevieve O’Reilly, Pam Ferris, and Derek Jacobi.

The film will be released in theaters this May 10.

Image zoom Fox Searchlight

Image zoom Fox Searchlight

Image zoom Fox Searchlight

Related content: