Stanley Kubrick's The Lord of the Rings starring the Beatles

cex

Banned
POD: JRR Tolkien dies a few years earlier, and Stanley Kubrick agrees to make The Lord of the Rings with the Beatles, starring:

Paul McCartney as Frodo Baggins
George Harrison as Gandalf
Ringo Starr as Samwise Gamgee
John Lennon as Gollum

And other 60s pop stars playing the other parts. You get the idea...
 

Geekhis Khan

This is either a camp masterpiece or an absolute disaster. Possibly both. Either way, this will be the ultimate cult movie.

Alternately, Lennon ends up in jail after murdering Kubrick on the set.
 

Sekhmet_D

I don't know about Kubrick at the helm, but the Beatles as the Hobbits is a stroke of genius. Now I cannot unsee it in my head.
 

cex

Banned
Geekhis Khan said:
This is either a camp masterpiece or an absolute disaster. Possibly both. Either way, this will be the ultimate cult movie.

Alternately, Lennon ends up in jail after murdering Kubrick on the set.
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Yoko Ono as Galadriel! And since Tolkien describes Sauron's physical form as 'black and terrible' and the 1960s are not the most PC of eras, Ray Charles in samurai armor as Sauron(pardon the pun, if you get it).
 
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cex

Banned
Sekhmet_D said:
I don't know about Kubrick at the helm, but the Beatles as the Hobbits is a stroke of genius. Now I cannot unsee it in my head.
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The battles between good and evil on Middle-Earth gets turned into pop vs rock/punk by Kubrick's soundtrack.
H.Flashman(VC) said:
I'm sorry for George, but if this camp piece is going to be directed by Kubrick, the Gandalf role is going to Peter Sellers.
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Given this if the 1960s we're talking about, don't be too surprised if Mordor is depicted as being populated by black people.
Dathi THorfinnsson said:
Bilbo, Gandalf, Tom Bombadil, .....
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Some more casting ideas suggested by somebody else:

Well you got the Fab 4 cast but who’s going to play the rest of the Fellowship and other major roles who was prominent in the late 60s?

Pretty solid casting the Rolling Stones as the Wringwraiths!

Keith Richard’s as the Witchking!

Pete Townsend as Sauraman!

Although a few years early, Ozzy Osborne would be perfect as the Balrog!

Jerry Garcia as Radagast the Brown just is perfect

Grace Slick as Awren

David Bowie as Legolas
 
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cex

Banned
And considering this is Kubrick, pipe-weed is replaced by marijuana and on-screen drug-taking. Witch-King Mick Jagger turns up on set sloshed on drugs, and they go ahead on filming anyways with an equally high Janis Joplin/Eowyn.
 
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Sekhmet_D

H.Flashman(VC) said:
I'm sorry for George, but if this camp piece is going to be directed by Kubrick, the Gandalf role is going to Peter Sellers.
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Try William Gaines of MAD Magazine fame. He was such a character, he wouldn't have required acting classes. Plus with his background in EC Comics, wizardry and dark fantasy would've been second nature to him.
 

Sekhmet_D

cex said:
And considering this is Kubrick, pipe-weed is replaced by marijuana and on-screen drug-taking. Witch-King Mick Jagger turns up on set sloshed on drugs, and they go ahead on filming anyways.
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The Samwise Ganja jokes will practically write themselves.
 

Arkenfolm

This sounds like the most 60s thing ever. There would be no other Lord of the Rings media since it would forever be associated with this glorious work no doubt beloved by hippies.
cex said:
Yoko Ono as Galadriel! And since Tolkien describes Sauron's physical form as 'black and terrible' and the 1960s are not the most PC of eras, Ray Charles in samurai armor as Sauron(pardon the pun, if you get it).
Click to expand...
"Black" is not referring to his skin color, it is being used as a synonym for "dark" to mean his body is twisted and radiating wickedness.
cex said:
Given this if the 1960s we're talking about, don't be too surprised if Mordor is depicted as being populated by black people.
Click to expand...
That's not how they cast black people in the 60s. Look at the Klingons in Star Trek, they were obviously the bad guys and even had a lot of orientalism to them, but were mostly played by white people.
 

cex

Banned
Sekhmet_D said:
The Samwise Ganja jokes will practically write themselves.
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One Ring to bring the high...
Arkenfolm said:
This sounds like the most 60s thing ever. There would be no other Lord of the Rings media since it would forever be associated with this glorious work no doubt beloved by hippies.

"Black" is not referring to his skin color, it is being used as a synonym for "dark" to mean his body is twisted and radiating wickedness.

That's not how they cast black people in the 60s. Look at the Klingons in Star Trek, they were obviously the bad guys and even had a lot of orientalism to them, but were mostly played by white people.
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Would Mordor be modelled after feudal Japan, given the Oriental craze in the 1960s? How would the fans react to Kubrick's portrayal of a katana and wakizashi-wielding Sauron dueling Aragorn at the end of ROTK?
 
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TheGuyWhoHeartsHistory

Geekhis Khan said:
This is either a camp masterpiece or an absolute disaster. Possibly both. Either way, this will be the ultimate cult movie.

Alternately, Lennon ends up in jail after murdering Kubrick on the set.
Click to expand...
I feel he’d be exonerated on the grounds of temporary insanity if they heard how Kubrick made Lennon say “my precious” 345 times.
 

CaptainCalvert

I love the casting suggestions for the Kubrick Lord of the Rings.

Excalibur (one of my davourite Arthurian films) is reputedly partly the salvaged remains of the planned Beatles Lord of the Rings, but I can't easily stomach the idea of LOTR being done that way.

Bored of the Rings, the National Lampoon spoof book might give a hint at the type of humour that might appear. I remember the humour had aged for the worse by the 1980s, so will either be very cringeworthy or even funnier now.
 
UniversalCommons

UniversalCommons

cex said:
POD: JRR Tolkien dies a few years earlier, and Stanley Kubrick agrees to make The Lord of the Rings with the Beatles, starring:

Paul McCartney as Frodo Baggins
George Harrison as Gandalf
Ringo Starr as Samwise Gamgee
John Lennon as Gollum

And other 60s pop stars playing the other parts. You get the idea...
Click to expand...
Have Heinz Edelman as the Art Director, the person who did the Yellow Submarine. David Bowie as Saruman.
 
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