#1. The Curious Case of The Hobbit

In 1964, Rembrandt Films purchased the film rights to The Hobbit for a period of 3 years with the obligation to produce a feature-length “full color” film in that timeframe. By 1967, funding had yet to be secured to produce said movie, a proposed deal with 20th Century-Fox had just fallen through. Rather than forfeit the rights to The Hobbit, Rembrandt produced a rushed 12 minute film that has been described as “short and lacking in detail, barely resembling the original story”.
Rembrandt premiered the film on June 30th, 1967, which was conveniently the last day before their film rights expired. They rustled up a crowd of moviegoers and gave them all dimes which they immediately gave back to “pay” for their ticket. At the conclusion of the movie, each patron signed a document stating they had paid to see the Hobbit film. This allowed Rembrandt to retain their film rights, which they then sold back to Tolkien for $100,000, the value having increased significantly in those 3 years due to the rising popularity of the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

The film was never released to the public, but resurfaced in 2012 when the original producer posted about it on his blog.