Ralph Bakshi`s animated Lord of the Rings film hit theaters 40 years ago this month in 1978, and now the director has shared some secrets about its production. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Bakshi talked about how The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger personally called Bakshi to ask if he could voice Frodo.Jagger came to the studio to catch up with Bakshi about The Lord of the Rings, and people working on the project apparently completely lost it when Jagger walked by.`[My studio on Hollywood and Vine] is full of college kids all graduated from art school, a very young group. So I`m walking through the studio with Mick Jagger and the girls start to scream and faint,` Bakshi recalls. `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.`Bakshi said he thought Jagger would be a `pretty good Frodo, I guess,` but had to tell the rockstar that the part was already filled, voiced, and completed. Actor Christopher Guard ended up voicing the Ring-bearer in the movie.Also in the story, Bakshi talks about how the world-famous English rock band Led Zeppelin wanted to be involved in his Lord of the Rings film. Presumably having heard Zeppelin songs like `Ramble On` and `The Battle of Evermore` which reference J.R.R. Tolkien and Lord of the Rings in general, Bakshi approached the band to see if they`d lend their music to the movie`s soundtrack.Unfortunately, the band`s contract apparently prohibited the group from lending its music to a project in this capacity. Instead, Bakshi went with composer Leonard Rosenman. `I didn`t mind him. He had a good reputation. But Led Zeppelin would have blown off the roof of the picture. So I lost that one,` Bakshi said.The entire THR piece is an in-depth and fa ...
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