This will probably mean nothing to 99.9% of people, but I've been watching a lot of Fritz Lang lately, so here's The Lord of the Rings as a Weimar-era German silent epic:
Directed by Fritz Lang
Screenplay by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou
Produced by Erich Pommer for UFA
Music by Gottfried Huppertz
Frodo: Walter Janssen
Sam: Georg John
Merry: Gustav Frohlich
Pippin: Gustav von Wangenheim
Bilbo: Otto Wernicke
Gollum: Peter Lorre (obviously!)
Gandalf: Bernhard Goetzke
Aragorn: Gustav Diessl
Boromir: Hans Adalbert Schlettow
Denethor: Rudolf Klein-Rogge (actually he'd make a great Orc but is much too good an actor to waste in such a small role)
Faramir: Erwin Biswanger
Legolas: Conrad Veidt
Gimli: Heinrich George
Theoden: Theodor Loos
Eomer: Paul Richter
Eowyn: Camilla Horn
Wormtongue: Alexander Granach
Celeborn: Alfred Abel
Galadriel: Brigitte Helm
Elrond: Fritz Rasp
Saruman: Werner Krauss
Radagast: Gosta Ekman
Arwen: Lil Dagover
Grishnakh: Max Schreck (you could even use his costume/makeup from Nosferatu)
Barliman: Emil Jannings
Actually, Peter Lorre as Gollum would also be a great choice for a '30s British version or a '40s Hollywood version.
I was going to do one as a Kurosawa samurai epic too, but realized I don't know enough Japanese actors. But how about Toshiro Mifune as Aragorn and maybe Takashi Shimura as Boromir?
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