The best stories to tell are the strangest and this story is one of the oddest you’ll hear.

In the mid-1960s, while The Beatles were still on top of the world, they released their second feature film Help!.

While not a masterpiece, The Beatles enjoyed making their films and continued until their final hour and while the band went on-ward with next films the Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine, they could’ve changed it all if they had their wish.

After Help!, The Beatles aimed to make their next film a little more creative and Paul McCartney‘s reading became the inspration point still (after all, it was Paul reading about the Merry Pranksters that made him think of Magical Mystery Tour).

The Fab Four wanted to make their own version of Tolkien‘s legendary series The Lord of The Rings with the brilliant idea of John Lennon playing Gollum, McCartney as Frodo with Ringo Starr as Sam and George Harrison as Gandalf.

The Beatles ran quick with the idea, jumping to release it on Boxing Day in 1967, they quickly asked their director of choice, Stanley Kubrick.

The rumours of Pink Floyd working with Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey have proven to be false, but according to eventual Lord of The Rings director Peter Jackson, this one was far from it.

In 2014, Jackson noted in an interview with Deadline that Paul McCartney told him about the plan and Kubrick being involved, but nothing came of it.

In actual fact, Kubrick wasn’t far involved with the project other than being asked. He apparently began jotting down ideas before it was killed off very quickly.

Lennon, who pursed the project, had the project personally declined by creator Tolkien, who expressed that the books were to grand to be pulled of at the time and disliked the Beatles being involved.

So there you go, Th

e Beatles had it declined before them. Yet, that’s not the end. Stanley Kubrick aimed to make the film shortly after Tolkien sold the rights in 1969, however like previously, nothing came of it.