Self-motivated child, unit study vs CM – input please!

My son, 11, has never really gotten into our studies much.  (He isn’t very excited about my carefully chosen books, doesn’t really want to talk to dad about what he’s learning, ho hum about history, has a “just get it done” mentality about his school work, and doesn’t play/create to reflect our learning.)  However, he usually has some passion that consumes all of his free time.  Currently, it is Lord of the Rings.  He read the Hobit and the Trilogy in his own time and is making his way through the special features of the movies to understand all that went into putting the movie together.  He creates games, art and movies to reflect what he’s learning – made up his own language of sorts.  Since he was young he has always shown a deep interest in something and wanted to learn all there is to know about it, exhaust the subject and move on to the next one.  I see how motivated and creative and engaged he is when he is passionate about the subject.  

There are several CM approaches that I will never compromise on: living books, narration, spreading a feast, good habits, etc.  But I wonder if this child would enjoy his learning more if it was geared toward his interests.  We follow SCM pretty closely, but I still spend a good deal of time putting together his curriculum (as well as my 3 other childrens’.)  At the end of the day, I don’t have much time/energy to help him make the most of his current passion.  If some of that planning was going toward a subject he would engage with, it would be so much more encouraging!  I would love your thoughts – do you think if I scaled back the module work and helped guide him into a unit study of sorts depending on his current passion, he would thrive?  Does anyone have experience with this?  Perhaps I could try it for a semester and see how it goes?  I appreciate any ideas!  Thanks!