How the Battle for 'Lord of the Rings' Nearly Broke a Director

Hollywood Reporter ^ | 11/10/18 | David Weiner

[OddLane]

Forty years after Ralph Bakshi's animated classic hit theaters, the filmmaker recalls courting Mick Jagger and Led Zeppelin and speaks candidly about the extreme pressure he was under: "I nearly died." Mick Jagger as Frodo. A Led Zeppelin soundtrack.

Battles on the field and behind the scenes before a three-film saga went bust. Forty years after his animated classic The Lord of the Rings hit theaters Nov. 15, 1978, these are some of the things on director Ralph Bakshi's mind during a candid conversation about what happened, and what could have been...

[Olog-hai]

Bakshi had a rough time with the old Spider-Man cartoon too.

[usual suspect]

Who cares?

[Olog-hai]

PS. “Aruman!”

[W.]

Heavy Metal was cool...

[BipolarBob]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_gobvGdiF0

[ConservativeMind]

That was completely odd to watch.

Bizarre.

[Dr. Sivana]

Bakshi was responsible for the vulgar hard R rated Fritz the Cat, and also seemed to have Mighty Mouse taking drugs in “The New Adventures”. I have no use for him.

[AceMineral]

The Mighty Heroes were great, and had the best theme song/music.

[Darksheare]

Ralph Bakshi has been mentioned!

[FlipWilson]

HELP!! I can’t unsee that!!!

[be-baw]

Apparently you do, or else you wouldn’t bother posting to this thread.

Have you ever been to a party, walked up to a group of people you don’t know and said, “I don’t care about what you’re talking about?” Try it sometime.

[Rummyfan]

Mick Jagger as Frodo.

That sunk it right there.

[Dr. Sivana]

Ok, I did like the Mighty Heroes.

[Bommer]

So did underdog. What's the point?

Super energy pills are what killed Elvis!

[Dr. Sivana]

Underdog might have had a prescription. The Bakshi MM (drawn in a distorted manner, inconsistent with the earlier Terrytoons rendition) takes his cocaine-style up his nose. Ugh!

[Alas Babylon!]

The hobbit chicks are hot!

[mrsmith]

Thanks. Fun read.
“... You can’t squeeze those three books into one picture unless you’re making a Roger Corman film.” LOL!

[Fedora]

Bakshi bump! Speaking of that, I was reading about some interesting backstory for the Bakshi LotR recently: Best Films Never Made #14: The Beatles’ Lord of the Rings: "Lennon was the lead driving-force on the project with sights set on the role of Gollum. Meanwhile Paul McCartney would be assigned Frodo, Ringo Starr would take on Sam, and George Harrison would be Gandalf. The Beatles themselves went so far as to approach a pre-2001: A Space Odyssey Stanley Kubrick to direct their ambitious feat. The best summarisation of how this saga ended comes from Peter Jackson on a press tour for his original trilogy: “It was something John was driving, and J.R.R. Tolkien still had the film rights at that stage, but he didn’t like the idea of The Beatles doing it. So he killed it.” Tolkien’s rejection of The Beatles’ offer is hardly a surprise to either fanbase – yet recently-revealed letters from the author suggest a personal dimension to his opposition to the project. In 1953, Tolkien had relocated to a quiet new house in a cul-de-sac in Oxford based on a doctor’s ultimatum to, in his words, find a house on “high dry soil and in the quiet” to support his ailing wife Edith. However 11 years later, his cul-de-sac had been opened up to traffic and Tolkien was not best pleased with the council’s decision. In a letter to Christopher Bretherton, the author complained about 'radio, tele, dogs, scooters, buzzbikes, and cars of all sizes but the smallest [making noise] from early morn to about 2 a.m.' In particular, his anger’s key outlet came three doors away. Tolkien wrote, 'In a house three doors away dwells a member of a group of young men who are evidently aiming to turn themeselves into a Beatle group. On days when it falls to his turn to a have a practice session the noise is indescribable.'" More details here.

[bigbob]

I still play the soundtrack often.