LE PROJET DU SEIGNEUR DES ANNEAUX AVEC LES BEATLES & STANLEY KUBRICK

The Beatles wanted to star in a film version of the Lord of the Rings. They wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct 

Kubrick, of course is one of the best movie directors that ever lived. Some of his best known movies are '2001: A Space Odyssey,' 'A Clockwork Orange,' and 'The Shining.' When the film rights to The Lord of the Rings were sold to United Artists, The Beatles tried to jump on the opportunity to make a film about it. The Lord of the Rings was a huge hit with the '60s liberation movement and it makes sense that The Beatles would take interest in a project like this.

However, Stanley Kubrick had to turn them down. For him, the stories were impossible to capture on film. Indeed, the only projects based on the property were some mediocre animated movies for a long time, until Peter Jackson made the early 2000 versions. Peter Jackson later said that Tolkien had been against the idea of The Beatles being involved with such a project. Indeed, Tolkien was very protective of his IP and reportedly set up a clause that prohibited Disney from being involved in creating a movie based on his works.

Lord of the Rings

As strange as it sounds, John Lennon was once pushing for a Beatles version of “Lord of the Rings." McCartney said, “John wanted us to buy the film rights to Lord of the Rings. It was very much his idea.” It seems that Lennon had the intent of casting himself in the most attention-getting role. The Beatles version would have had John Lennon playing the grasping, thieving creature Gollum, Paul McCartney as the hero Frodo, George Harrison as the wise wizard Gandalf and Ringo Starr playing Frodo’s devoted sidekick Sam. The Beatles plan fell flat when the author J.R.R. Tolkein, who still had the film rights, rejected the idea of the Beatles doing it. Also the possibility of Lennon getting the staring role might not have set well with the other Beatles. “The strength of the other films which we made is that we’re all equal”, was Paul’s thoughts on the matter. Although the soundtrack would have certainly been interesting, can you imagine the Beatles doing this film with 1960’s the special effects? This was a few years before “2001: A Space Odyssey”, considered as the first of the “modern” special effects films.