An entire major movie franchise with The Beatles in the lead roles? Sounds like a made-for-TV movie along the lines of ‘KISS Saves Christmas,’ doesn’t it? 

1969 was the year the rights to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ were acquired by United Artists, of whose music label worked with The Beatles. Once the iconic band heard the news, they immediately wanted a part of it and decided Stanley Kubrick, with his past work ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ as an example, was the perfect guy to helm a movie adaptation. If all had gone as planned, John Lennon would have played Gollum, Paul McCartney would have been Frodo, Ringo Starr would have been Sam and George Harrison would have been Gandalf. Too bad (or maybe it’s a good thing) the director didn’t feel the same way -– he told Lennon the book was unfilmable, referring to the exhausting task of condensing all that material for the screen.

Read More: 10 Things You Didn't Know About 'The Lord of the Rings' Movies | http://screencrush.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-things-you-didnt-know/?trackback=tsmclip