A closer look
John Lennon aggressively lobbied to adapt Tolkien's legendary fantasy epic into a musical film starring The Beatles, with Paul McCartney playing Frodo, Ringo Starr taking on Samwise, and Lennon himself portraying the corrupted creature Gollum. Stanley Kubrick was even approached to direct this chaotic fever dream before Tolkien immediately shut the entire project down, allegedly horrified by the prospect of four British pop stars turning Middle-earth into a psychedelic rock concert. The sheer unmitigated hubris required to look at a dense, sprawling masterpiece of literature and decide it needs a catchy drum solo perfectly summarizes the narcissistic insanity of nineteen sixties rockstars. We were mercifully spared from enduring a heavily medicated musical sequence where Sauron is defeated by the power of love and acoustic guitars!
