The Beatles

From Tolkien Gateway

The Beatles were a legendary band, made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who were in talks to star in an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings in 1969.

History[edit | edit source]

In 1969, The Beatles were due one more film on their three-picture deal with United Artists. Their agent Denis O'Dell thought an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings with the four band members as the four Hobbits "and Donovan, too"[1] would be a good match. By chance, United Artists were just closing negotiations for the cinema rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The band, who were currently in India, did not read the book until urged to do so by Donovan and O'Dell, who brought copies in his suitcase.[1]

According to O'Dell, John Lennon fancied the role of Gandalf,[1] but George Harrison recalled that Lennon then wanted to swap for Frodo. Ringo Starr wanted to play Sam, while Paul McCartney coveted Frodo.[2] He told Peter Jackson that Lennon would have been Gollum, Ringo Sam, and Harrison Gandalf.[3] Donovan was keen on Merry, and they wanted Twiggy for Galadriel.[1]

Meanwhile, in conversations with United Artists, it was decided to court a star director in place of the Beatles' previous director Richard Lester: First, David Lean (brother of Tangye Lean, one of the original Inklings) was approached and called it an "interesting idea"[1] but was busy preparing Ryan's Daughter. Stanley Kubrick was next, reading the book at the urging of his daughter while on a ferry back to the UK from doing publicity for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Interested but busy preparing a to-be-aborted biopic of Napoleon's, Kubrick declined twice, before telling O'Dell its "unfilmable."[1] Heinz Edelmann, a fan of the book and art director on Yellow Submarine, pitched his own idea for an adaptation to United Artists, but was summarily rejected.[2]

O'Dell courted Michaelangelo Antonioni, but by that point the project ran aground: accounts vary as to whether Tolkien threatened to pull out of negotiations for the rights with United Artists if the Beatles were involved,[4] or whether the band members simply lost interest.[2] When UA did finally land the rights, they contracted John Boorman to write and direct, still with the Beatles attached to star,[5] not knowing the band was breaking up.[6]

In 2021, Peter Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings film series, directed a three-part documentary about the band called Get Back.

External links[edit | edit source]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Dennis O'Dell, At the Apple's core: the Beatles from the inside. (Peter Owen, 2002) pp. 92–105.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "1968-2018 – Il y a 50 ans, Le Seigneur des Anneaux et les Beatles au cinéma". JRRVF (in French).
  3. George Varga "Help! The Beatles once wanted to make 'The Lord of The Rings' film with director Stanley Kubrick". The Morning Call, 13 July 2018.
  4. Stuart D. Lee, A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien. (Wiley: 2020). pp. 518–521. ISBN 978-1119656029.
  5. Tim Pelan, "The Great Unmade? John Boorman's Lord of the Rings." Cinetropolis.
  6. Little-known sci-fi facts: Tolkien killed a Beatles LOTR movie at Syfy Wire (accessed 2 September 2020)