Skip to main content

The Beatles nearly made The Lord of the Rings, with John Lennon as Gollum

sgt peppers dolby atmos the beatles wax  berlin
360b / Shutterstock.com

The Beatles nearly had a second career as leading actors in The Lord of the Rings. For the 50th anniversary of Help!Variety looked back at what the Fab Four’s film career could have been. Just before Help!‘s debut (and a year after 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night), the producer of the two films, Walter Shenson, told Variety that the “boys” wanted their third film to be “different.” The band had lots of ideas for what the third film — under their three-contract film with United Artists — could be, but the most bizarre was a John, Paul, George and Ringo-starring The Lord of the Rings film.

“The Beatles once approached Stanley Kubrick to do The Lord of the Rings,” explained director/producer Peter Jackson to Deadline last year. “This was before Tolkien sold the rights. They approached him and he said no. I actually spoke about this with Paul McCartney. He confirmed it. I’d heard rumors that it was going to be their next film after Help. John Lennon was going to play Gollum. Paul was going to play Frodo. George Harrison was going to play Gandalf, and Ringo Starr was going to play Sam.”

J.R.R. Tolkien himself also turned down the idea, according to Variety, although he was seemingly more annoyed about their loud practice sessions. “In a house three doors away dwells a member of a group of young men who are evidently aiming to turn themselves into a Beatle Group,” wrote Tolkien in a letter. “On days when it falls to his turn to have a practice session the noise is indescribable.”

While the seemingly absurd idea did quickly fizzle, the Beatles did have film success when they proposed the idea prior to the launch of Help!. Hard Day’s Night outshined expectations, earning two Oscar nominations, and providing the basis for United Artists to give the quartet a bigger budget for Help!. They ended up getting a budget of $1.5 million for the film, a comedy adventure about the band members facing off against an evil cult. The film was in color and was shot in Austria and the Bahamas, according to Variety. It didn’t end up having the same critical and commercial success as their first, though.

The Beatles did finally make a third film, the 1970 documentary Let It Be. In between, the Beatles recorded some of the most long-lasting ’60s records: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be. We can only wonder what would’ve happened if, instead, the quartet starred in The Lord of the Rings.

Editors' Recommendations

Chris Leo Palermino
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…
Amazon Game Studios reveals MMO based on The Lord of the Rings
The lord of the Rings amazon game studios massively multiplayer online game

Amazon is officially doubling down on its investment into Middle-earth. Following up the reveal of a television series based on The Lord of the Rings being developed, Amazon Game Studios has revealed a new massively multiplayer online game based on the popular fantasy novels as well.

The online retail company started making major gaming moves with Amazon Game Studios as far back as 2014 but, during E3 2019, employees were laid off and unannounced games were canceled. Part of the move was done to prioritize the development of specific games and it is likely that this MMO based on The Lord of the Rings is one such game.

Read more
Best Cyber Monday Deals 2022: Laptops, TVs, AirPods, and more
Best Cyber Monday Deals 2022

Cyber Week is here! With some truly epic deals out there, this is the best time of year to buy a new tech gadget. If you slept through the Black Friday sales, then the Cyber Monday sales, you better grab what you need during this week of slowly diminishing deals. From tablets to air fryers, laptops to smartwatches, we've rounded up the best Cyber Monday deals across a range of categories, and you'll find them all below.
Cyber Monday sales: Quick links

Amazon: Huge discounts on laptops, Echo devices, and tablets
Best Buy: Your destination for sales on super-sized TVs
Dell: Unbeatable discounts on gaming laptops, monitors, and more
Gamestop: Cheap video games, console accessories and monitors
HP: Gaming PCs, laptops, monitors, and printers from $129
Kohl's: Home decor, clothing and kitchen appliance steals
Lowe’s: Up to 60% off appliances like refrigerators and decor
Staples: Save big on laptops, home office hardware and supplies
Target: Tons of cheap kitchen appliances and stocking-fillers
Walmart: Great for laptops, and is restocking PS5 and Xbox Series X

Read more
What is hi-res audio, and how can you experience it right now?
Dlyan Wireless Headphones

High-resolution audio, hi-res audio, or even HD audio -- whatever you decide to call it (for the record, the industry prefers "hi-res audio"), it's a catch-all term that describes digital audio that goes above and beyond the level of sound quality you can expect from a garden-variety MP3 file and even CDs. It was once strictly the domain of audiophiles, but now that major streaming music services like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz have embraced it, almost everyone can take advantage of what hi-res has to offer.

But what exactly is hi-res audio? What equipment do you need to listen to it? Where can you download or stream it? And does it actually sound better? We've got the answers.
What does the term 'hi-res audio' mean?

Read more