Often the stories of movies that were never made are just as interesting as those that become big hits. Can you imagine Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings starring the Beatles? It was a real idea at one time.
Before J. R. R. Tolkien sold the film rights for The Lord of the Rings to United Artists, who produced A Hard Day’s Night, in 1969, The Beatles thought it might fulfill their contract nicely. Lennon, one of the best songwriters in music contacted Stanley Kubrick, one of the best directors in the movies, to make it. Lennon reportedly wanted to play Gollum. He cast Paul as Frodo, Ringo as Sam, and George as Gandalf.
J. R.R. Tolkien, who was an English professor at Oxford at the time, was initially in favor of the idea. Lord of the Rings was published in 1954 and the best offer he’d gotten was from literary agent Forrest J. Ackerman who wanted to make a cartoon out of it. Ackerman hadn’t scored his big hit, Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, yet.
But it was not to be. As it was with the Rolling Stones when they pursued the possibility of starring in a movie version of A Clockwork Orange. Read about both of those projects and why those intriguing movies weren’t made at Den of Geek.