For some reason only today I became aware of one of the current "must see videos" on YouTube: "Khraniteli" the unauthorised TV version of "The Fellowship of the Ring" made by the Soviets right before the country collapsed in 1991. It is not "inspired": they openly mention Tolkien's book in the opening credits.
It was considered lost, until, out of the blue, what apparently is the original producer (The Leningrad TV Channel - yes, "They Are Taking the Hobbit to Leningrad" is already a meme) published it on YouTube.
Part one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vquKyNdgH3sPart two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLevCLNnLmgIt is awe-inspiring. I watched it in a sort of dazed stupor. It starts with, I think, Leon Trotsky narrating the affair and... let's say that how they tackled the whole Balrog attack and Gandalf's "death" big set piece is just genius.
It is also more faithful to the book than Jackson's version! In two hours they managed to put in The Old Forest, Tom Bombadil (!), the Barrow Down, the Warg Attack... all things absent from even the Extended version.
Since the "What they were thinking?? No,
really" is strong in this one, Variety tracked down the survivors of the original cast and published an in-depth "making of" piece - which shows even more how the production itself bordered on surrealism. A Tim Burton in his prime could have shot a movie about this production. If you want to watch the uhm... movie... I suggest to read this piece afterwards because it spoils... Well, exactly
what they were thinking - for example about Legolas.
https://variety.com/2021/film/actors/russian-lord-of-the-rings-khraniteli-1234968603/A curiosity: the Soviet government never intended to do the whole trilogy. For some reason, "The Fellowship of the Ring" was considered the only "politically acceptable" part of LotR. The other two books were banned (even if they circulated in translations done... by hand and then photocopied - those were the days in the SU!)