The Beatles’ lives are being made into films
Four biopics announced in one fell swoop
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison (from left to right) receive their own four-part film series.
© IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
According to US media, the story of the Beatles will be told in four separate films. Oscar winner Sam Mendes directs.
The four Beatles John Lennon (1940-1980), Paul McCartney (81), George Harrison (1943-2001) and Ringo Starr (83) receive their own four-part film series. According to the US industry magazine “Deadline”, director and Oscar winner Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”, 58) is planning to dedicate their own feature film to each of the four music legends. All four works are scheduled to appear in cinemas in 2027. The surviving Beatles McCartney and Starr gave their blessing to the project, as did the heirs of Lennon and Harrison.
“Epic cinema experience” planned
“I’m honored to tell the story of the greatest rock band of all time and look forward to challenging the idea of what constitutes a moviegoing experience,” director Mendes said in a statement. which is available to the “Hollywood Reporter”.. Each of the four planned films will be told from the perspective of a member of the legendary band, culminating in the breakup of the “Fab Four” in 1970. The actors for the four Beatles have not yet been determined.
This was the first time that the Beatles had given their full support to a fictional film project. The complete life story of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr can be told like this. In addition, the band’s full music catalog is also freely available to the filmmakers.
Music biopics have been trending for years
The newly announced major project joins a whole series of musician biographies that have ensured consistently solid box office results in recent years. The Bob Marley biopic “Bob Marley: One Love” has just started successfully. Baz Luhrmann’s (61) pop film biography “Elvis” about the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” Elvis Presley (1935-1977) was also a success with worldwide box office receipts of over 288 million US dollars.
The biopic “Back to Black” about Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) will be released in cinemas this spring. Antoine Fuqua’s (58) “Michael” about the “King of Pop” Michael Jackson (1958-2009) is to follow next year.
The Beatles have also been the subject of film biographies dedicated to individual aspects of the band’s history and the lives of their members. For example, the little-noticed “Nowhere Boy” by British director Sam Taylor-Johnson (56) was about John Lennon’s teenage years. The Beatles singer was played here by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (33). Documentary projects about the “Fab Four” have reached a larger audience in the past, such as Peter Jackson’s (62) three-part documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back”, which was released in 2021 and is about the recording of the final Beatles album “Let It Be ” goes.