Peter Jackson earned three Oscars when he made the Lord Of The Rings films into a blockbuster trilogy.
But the director has told of his disappointment that the Fab Four didn’t get there first.
JRR Tolkien stopped the Beatles’ plans to switch Abbey Road for Shire during the Sixties.
Sir Paul McCartney has now admitted he is ‘glad’ the plans – which included him playing Frodo – never came to fruition.
Peter Jackson won three Oscars for his transformation of the Lord Of The Rings book series into blockbuster films. But the director has told of his disappointment that the Fab Four didn’t get there first (Jackson pictured in 2019)
JRR Tolkien prevented the Beatles from creating a Middle Earth musical. Sir Paul McCartney (pictured November 16 in London) has now admitted he is ‘glad’ the plans – which included him playing Frodo – never came to fruition.
Denis O’Dell, a producer on the band’s previous films, came up with the idea of a Lord Of The Rings musical after the group read the books while staying at an ashram in India. However, Tolkien (pictured 1967) stopped the project from moving forward.
Jackson, whose latest project is a three-part Beatles documentary, told the BBC: ‘Paul said, “I’m glad we didn’t do it, because you got to do yours and I liked your film”.
‘But I said to him, “Well, it’s a shame you didn’t do it, because it would have been a musical”.
‘That would have been 14 or 15 Beatles songs that would have been pretty incredible to listen to.’
Peter Jackson won three Oscars for his Lord Of The Rings film trilogy. But he said that the Beatles were considering doing a Lord Of The Rings musical when he turned them into blockbuster films.
Denis O’Dell, a producer on the band’s previous films, came up with the idea of a Lord Of The Rings musical after the group read the books while staying at an ashram in India.
However, Tolkien was in his late 70s and prevented plans from moving forward.
‘They couldn’t get the rights, because he didn’t like the idea of a pop group doing his story,’ Jackson said.
‘So it got nixed by him.
‘For a moment in time they were seriously contemplating doing that at the beginning of 1968.’
For his three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back, Jackson sifted through 60 hours of footage of the band recording 1970’s Let It Be.
It was created with the help of Sir Paul, 79 and Ringo, 81.
For his three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back, Jackson sifted through 60 hours of footage of the band recording 1970’s Let It Be. This project was made possible by the cooperation of Sir Paul (79) and Ringo Starr (81).