JRR Tolkien film biopic set for silver screen

A biopic of JRR Tolkien's life is said to be in the pipeline (AP)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy made billions of dollars at the box office and now the story of the author who created those fantasy worlds is to be brought to the silver screen.

The story of JRR Tolkien’s life is to be turned into a biopic covering his life from writing The Hobbit in 1937 to the Lord of the Rings trilogy he started 17 years later.

Irish writer David Gleeson has written the script, initially called Tolkien, which is currently in development stage, with Fox Searchlight and Chernin Entertainment on board to produce, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The project had been compared to Finding Neverland, in which Johnny Depp played JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan.

It is unclear whether the Tolkien Estate has approved the project or whether that approval would be crucial to the film going ahead.

The film is to cover his life at Pembroke College, Cambridge before he went to fight in the First World War. It will cover how these formative experiences shaped the work that would go onto receive such acclaim.

The second film from the Hobbit trilogy, called The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is to be released in cinemas next month.