In recent years, Nicholas Hoult has made a name for himself playing young Hank McCoy (Beast) in the current series of X-Men films and also as the eccentric Nux in George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road. The actor's catalog shows he has a clear penchant for genre films after landing lead roles in the likes of Jack the Giant Slayer and the zom-com Warm Bodies, but -- if his next gig comes to fruition -- he'll go from acting in fantastical stories to "creating" them.

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According to Deadline, Hoult is in talks with Fox Searchlight to star in Tolkien, a biopic exploring the early years of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit author J.R.R. Tolkien. Written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford and helmed by Finnish director Dome Karukoski, the film is set to explore "the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a fellow group of outcasts at school. This takes him into the outbreak of World War I, which threatens to tear the 'fellowship' apart," culminating in the themes and relationships that Tolkien would later apply to the mythology and characters within his beloved Middle Earth book series.

No release date has been announced for Tolkien, but Hoult will appear alongside his fellow mutants on November 2, 2018 when X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters.