Before Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, there was…Ralph Bakski’s Lord of the Rings movies…well, movie. In 1978, the celebrated animator adapted J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring (plus part of The Two Towers) for the big screen, and while his version never became as popular as Jackson’s take on the material did 20 years later, it’s a beloved cult classic to this day, and something Jackson used when making his own version.
If that reminds you of this scene from Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring, it’s supposed to.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bakshi talks about the “extreme pressure” he was under when making the film, and reveals a couple of interesting anecdotes. For example, at one point, Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones visited the production studios and pitched himself for the role of Frodo Baggins. “ is full of college kids all graduated from art school, a very young group,” Bakshi remembers.
"So I’m walking through the studio with Mick Jagger and the girls start to scream and faint. I had 2,200-3,000 people working on four floors, and the word spread to each floor that Jagger is walking around, and people got from one floor to the other through the staircase, and there was thunder like horsemen coming down, shaking the staircase. My son was there for the summer and he was terrified — he hid in the bathroom. So that was just hysterical."
This was in the ’70s, mind you, back when Jagger when still in his rock star heyday. You might faint too.
Anyway, Jagger arrived too late; Christopher Guard had already recorded the vocal work for Frodo, and Bakshi had to turn the rock star down. “I told him I would have used him easily but I was already recorded and everything. He’d be a pretty good Frodo, I guess. I don’t know.”
As an aside, what is it with rock stars and The Lord of the Rings? Back in the ’60s, the Beatles wanted to star in a Lord of the Rings movie to be directed by Stanley Kubrick. (What is that alternate universe like?) And not long ago, we learned that David Bowie almost played Elrond in Peter Jackson’s movies. Is some rocker going to pop up in Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings show? Bon Jovi as Gandalf? Ozzy Osbourne as Sauron?
Speaking of the Amazon show, Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn’s in Jackson’s movies, has some advice for whoever takes over his role:
"I would say, not only read the book, you know, very thoroughly, that giant book of Lord of the Rings, but you could read some of the Nordic sagas. You’ll get some clues there as to where Tolkien got his information. Like, Sigurd the Dragon Slayer, and the Volsunga saga. Read that."
Although there’s no official word from Amazon, rumor has it that its Lord of the Rings show will be about the life of a young Aragorn, so to whoever snags the role: best listen to your forebearer.
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h/t Collider