Excalibur: 1980s Liam Neeson Film Nearly Became Lord of the Rings

John Boorman had wanted to make a Merlin film since 1969. After United Artists rejected a three-hour Merlin script by Rospo Pallenberg for being too costly, the studio offered Boorman The Lord of the Rings instead. Reading Tolkien, he saw parallels between Frodo and Arthur and between Gandalf and Merlin, and spent six months with Pallenberg condensing the trilogy into a three-hour screenplay and planning effects to realize Middle-earth.

By the time the script was finished, the United Artists executive who had championed the project had left and the studio lacked the funds to proceed. Boorman shopped the project to other companies, including Disney, but no one wanted to mount a live-action Lord of the Rings; Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated version and subsequent studio hesitancy closed that door.

Boorman pivoted to the Arthurian legend and made Excalibur, shot on location in Ireland.

Ireland

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