Taika Waititi Confesses to Stealing From The Hobbit Set to Film What We Do in the Shadows

Taika Waititi stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night, where he shared that while filming What We Do in the Shadows, he stole from The Hobbit set and used their props for his own production.

"When I did What We Do in the Shadows — when Jemaine [Clement] and I were shooting that, we didn't have much money to do that film, and The Hobbit had just wrapped," said Waititi.

The filmmaker hesitated, saying, "Man, I don't know if I should tell this," but decided to continue on. "Our production designer, in the dead of night, took his crew to The Hobbit studios and stole all of the dismantled, broken-down green screens and took all of the timber, and we built a house," he said.

Waititi added, "I have never talked to Peter Jackson [The Hobbit director] about this. I don't know if he knows. I like telling it at parties, that story. But I don't know if he actually knows."

Waititi's 2014 low-budget vampire comedy ended up inspiring his FX mockumentary series, which will premiere its fourth season on July 12.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 PM ET on CBS. What We Do in the Shadows is currently streaming on Hulu.

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Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.