Rumor: Beatles to make a Lord Of The Rings film

From Wikipedia:

The Beatles were on a three-picture deal with United Artists. Their previous two features, A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, directed by Richard Lester, were successful. When it became clear that the animated Yellow Submarine would not count as part of this deal [sic?], Denis O’Dell (head of the Beatles’ Apple Films) entered negotiations for their third film. He came up with the idea of a Lord of the Rings “multimedia musical extravaganza”, starring the Beatles as the four Hobbits. He learned that United Artists were in negotiations for the rights. In conversation with studio heads David and Arnold Picker, it was decided that a “star director” was required. O’Dell shortlisted David Lean, Stanley Kubrick, and Michelangelo Antonioni. Lean declined. O’Dell left to India to visit the Beatles, with the books in his suitcase. At the behest of Donovan, the band examined the books and began to think “seriously” about the idea. According to O’Dell, John Lennon fancied the role of Gandalf, but George Harrison recalled that Lennon then wanted to swap for Frodo. Ringo Starr wanted to play Sam, while Paul McCartney coveted Frodo. He told Jackson that Lennon would have been Gollum, Ringo Sam, and Harrison Gandalf. Donovan was keen on Merry, and they wanted Twiggy for Galadriel.

Kubrick declined, telling O’Dell the books were excellent, but “unfilmable”. Kubrick had worked on genre films and had pioneered special effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it proved complex to produce, and he had difficulty depicting the aliens onscreen, which would have made him wary of the prospect of rendering fantasy creatures. He was still promoting that film and it was not making the box-office returns that he had hoped for. Chris Conkling and Peter Jackson later said that making it live-action at the time was inconceivable; Ralph Bakshi said it could have been made, but would have been “very tacky.”

Heinz Edelmann, a fan of the book and art director on Yellow Submarine, pitched his own idea for an adaptation to United Artists. Thinking that a “straight” adaptation of the story was impossible, he wanted to do an animated film in the style of Fantasia or “rock opera” with a Kurosawa-like aesthetic. He considered the Rolling Stones to star, but then latched onto the Beatles; however, United Artists wanted a live-action film.

O’Dell talked to Antonioni, who is said to have been keener, but the project never started. The group argued over their desired parts, and Harrison and McCartney were skeptical. McCartney remembers that Tolkien had reservations. There were false rumours that the Beatles and Kubrick talked about an adaptation in 1965. After the rights were secured and John Boorman made his script, the idea of casting the Beatles (as the four Hobbits) was brought back to the table by David Picker, until the band’s separation became publicly known in 1970. In retrospect, O’Dell is skeptical of the whole venture. Others involved had since described the project as “inspired showmanship.”

According to Peter Jackson, Tolkien disliked “the idea of a pop group doing his story” and thus “nixed” the project.