The makers of a forthcoming biopic about JRR Tolkien have stressed their “utmost respect and admiration” for the Lord of the Rings author, after his family distanced themselves from the film.

Fox Searchlight’s Tolkien, starring Nicholas Hoult as the author and Lily Collins as his wife Edith, is out in May. On Tuesday, the author’s estate and family issued a statement in which they said that they “did not approve of, authorise or participate in the making of this film”, and that they “do not endorse it or its content in any way”.

In response, Fox Searchlight said in a statement that the studio was “so proud of Dome Karukoski’s film which focuses on the early years of Tolkien’s extraordinary life and does not depict subject matter from his novels”.

“While we did not work with the Tolkien estate on this project, the film-making team has the utmost respect and admiration for Mr Tolkien and his phenomenal contribution to literature.”

According to the studio, the film covers Tolkien’s formative years “as he finds friendship, courage and inspiration among a fellow group of writers and artists at school” and makes links between his experiences during the first world war, and courting his eventual wife Edith Bratt, to his later creation of The Lord of the Rings and other novels set in Middle-earth.

Biographer John Garth, author of Tolkien and the Great War, said that “biopics typically take considerable licence with the facts, and this one is no exception”.

“Endorsement by the Tolkien family would lend credibility to any divergences and distortions. That would be a disservice to history,” he said.