Peter Jackson discusses how Tolkien put a stop to the Beatles' Lord of the Rings film.

Fast Forward 36 Years and The Return of the King, the latest in Jackson's trilogy of adaptations of the literary classic, will achieve a record number of Oscar's in a year - 11, including best director for Jackson. Oh, how different it would be if it were a fantastic foursome with Frodo.

The Beatles may have lost out to Jackson when it came to the big screen release of The Lord of the Rings, but now the famous culture giants have teamed up on the three-part, nearly eight-hour, Disney+ documentary.

As part of the project, Jackson reconstructed more than 50 hours of clips from the 1970 documentary Let It Be and combined them to tell a more upbeat version of what happened in the studio in January 1969.

Working with The Beatles also allowed Jackson to ask Sir Paul McCartney what happened to their version of The Lord of the Rings. Coming from New Zealand, Jackson said he was curious to know the truth.

"I have gathered some information. I asked Paul about it. "Ringo doesn't remember much," Jackson said. "I'm assuming that since there were three, he sent each of the Beatles a book. I don't think Ringo got it, but John, Paul, and George each had a book to read, The Lord of the Rings in India. And they loved it. he. "

But the meddling of the writer, who died in 1973, three years after The Beatles broke up, meant it wasn't going to happen, Jackson explained.

"In the end, they couldn't get Tolkien rights because he didn't like the idea of ​​a pop group making the story. So he turned it down. They tried. There's no doubt about that. Wait a minute; they did this in early 1968 with serious consideration."