TOR.net correspondent Frunk asked a friend of his who's a world authority on rock music about the Beatles/LOTR project, and got this in reply:

"They wanted Twiggy to be Galadriel!

Yup! This was on the cards at one time...1968... They were looking to make their third movie ("A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!" being one and two). They approached David Lean who was busy on other projects and then Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick hadn't read the books, so Dennis O'Dell (head of Apple Films) sent him round copies. He wasn't interested but suggested Michaelangelo Antonioni.

Apple Films then asked Tolkein for the rights only to be told they'd been sold to United Artists - days before. As this was being talked about at the time, UA obviously knew and as they were the distributors for "Yellow Submarine" saw another great potential.

UA were prepared to let The Beatles have the rights but the whole thing fell apart. According to Macca, Paul Gallico wrote several treatments but he also said he didn't like the idea because John wanted to be Frodo. Not true - John wanted to be Gollum (as you said). Also, Macca was the one in control of Apple at the time so we can reasonably assume Paul just wasn't too keen. And - it was around that time that Paul was talking to Richard Lester (who filmed AHDN) about The Fabs starring in The Three Musketeers which Lester went on to make 5 years later!

One last Beatle/LOTR thing: There are some pix of George supposedly wearing a wizard's costume - pointy cap and white top with a moon on the front. Although these are said to come from rehearsals for LOTR, they actually come from a 1964 show called Around The Beatles where they did a small extract from A Midsummer Night's Dream."

This news comes to you courtesy of the Rockmine - well worth checking out for info like this!