Peter Jackson is an incredibly accomplished filmmaker who just recently completed work on a new Beatles docuseries that just debuted on Disney+, titled “Get Back.” But for many people, Jackson is best known for his work as the filmmaker behind the acclaimed “Lord of the Rings” film series. But what you might not know is that his Beatles work and ‘Rings’ work has a bit of a crossover.
According to the BBC, Peter Jackson spoke about how, decades before the filmmaker adapted J. R. R. Tolkien’s greatest work, the Fab Four were already trying to get the go-ahead to make their own adaptation of “Lord of the Rings.”
“I’ve been scraping together little pieces of information. I’ve been interrogating Paul [McCartney] about it. Ringo [Starr] doesn’t remember much,” Jackson explained. “What I understand is that Denis O’Dell, who was their Apple film producer, who produced ‘The Magic Christian,’ had the idea of doing ‘Lord of The Rings.’ When [The Beatles] went to Rishikesh and stayed in India, it was about three months with the Maharishi at the beginning of 1968, he sent the books to The Beatles.”
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He continued, “I expect because there are three, he sent one book to each of the Beatles. I don’t think Ringo got one, but John, Paul, and George each got one ‘Lord of The Rings’ book to read in India. And they got excited about it.”
Unfortunately, even with the excitement from one of the biggest musical acts in the world, the film was not meant to be.
“Ultimately, they couldn’t get the rights from Tolkien, because he didn’t like the idea of a pop group doing his story,” said Jackson. “So it got nixed by him. They tried to do it. There’s no doubt about it. For a moment in time they were seriously contemplating doing that at the beginning of 1968.”
So, while it might have been one of the biggest fails in all of film history, you have to be a little curious what The Beatles’ version of “Lord of the Rings” would have looked like. It could have been glorious. But it could have also been terrible. Either way, it would be a must-see.