(L to R) Paul Mescal is Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson is John Lennon, Joseph Quinn is George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan is Ringo Starr in ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’. Photo: Sony Pictures.
Preview:
The first official pictures of leads Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson as the Beatles are online.
Sam Mendes is busy making linked movies under the banner The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event.
The movies will be released in 2028.
The cameras have already been rolling on Sam Mendes’ ambitious aim to chronicle a particular period in the life of musical sensations The Beatles, known as ‘The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event.’
Paul Mescal is Paul McCartney in ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’. Photo: Sony Pictures.
With the backing of Sony Pictures Classics –– not to mention being granted full life story and music rights by Beatles holding company Apple Corps Ltd. (not the iPhone gang), surviving members McCartney and Starr and the families of deceased colleagues Lennon and Harrison –– Mendes will make four different biopics, covering each Beatles’ experiences during the band’s rise to massive popularity.
Though a strict time period for what the movies will cover has yet to be announced, the idea is for the stories to (naturally intersect), looking to get a fuller, clearer picture of their time than any one movie could hope to accomplish.
Harris Dickinson is John Lennon in ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’. Photo: Sony Pictures.
Here’s what Mendes had to say about the project:
“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies.”
When will ‘The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event’ be in theaters?
Barry Keoghan is Ringo Starr in ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’. Photo: Sony Pictures.
The current plan is for all four movies to land in April 2028.
Joseph Quinn is George Harrison in ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’. Photo: Sony Pictures.‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’, directed by Sam Mendes. (L to R) Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney), Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr), and Joseph Quinn (George Harrison). In theaters April 2028. Photo by: John Russo.
(Left) Saoirse Ronan as Rona in ‘The Outrun’. Photo: Martin Scott Powell. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. (Center) Anna Sawai in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,’ coming soon to Apple TV+. (Right) Aimee Lou Wood in ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3. Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO.
Preview:
Saoirse Ronan will play Linda McCartney in Sam Mendes’ Beatles project.
Anna Sawai and Aimee Lou Wood are among those circling roles.
(L to R) Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon in ‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.’
With the backing of Sony Pictures Classics –– not to mention being granted full life story and music rights by Beatles holding company Apple Corps Ltd. (not the iPhone gang), surviving members McCartney and Starr and the families of deceased colleagues Lennon and Harrison –– Mendes will make four different biopics, covering each Beatles’ experiences during the band’s rise to massive popularity.
Though a strict time period for what the movies will cover has yet to be announced, the idea is for the stories to (naturally intersect), looking to get a fuller, clearer picture of their time than any one movie could hope to accomplish.
Here’s what Mendes had to say about the project:
“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies.”
When will ‘The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event’ be in theaters?
Mendes is currently aiming for the movies to release close together in April 2028, so he has his work cut out for him and a lot of hard day’s nights ahead.
Opening exclusively in IMAX theaters on April 11th before opening wider on April 18th is the new documentary ‘One to One: John & Yoko‘, which focuses on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 18-month stay in Greenwich Village from 1971–1973, and leading up to their 1972 concert, “One to One”, which was the only full live concert that Lennon participated in after The Beatles broke up in 1970.
(L to R) John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the documentary ‘One to One: John & Yoko’. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with filmmaker Kevin MacDonald about his work on ‘One to One: John & Yoko’, how he became involved with the project, creating a film around the footage, focusing on this specific point in John and Yoko’s lives and American history, their incredible relationship, the genius of Yoko Ono, and what John was looking for at that point in his life.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
‘One to One: John & Yoko’ director Kevin MacDonald. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about how you got involved with this project and your choice to focus on this specific time in John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s lives, as well as what was going on in America at that time?
Kevin MacDonald: Well, how this came to me is that the producer, Peter Worsley, had been chasing for years the rights to be able to use this concert. It’s a legendary concert, the only full-length concert that John ever gave after leaving The Beatles. So, it’s got incredible value, but it had always been swept under the carpet because it was so badly filmed and so badly recorded. So, the family didn’t really like it being out there because they felt like it didn’t represent John at his best. But with recent advances in sound technology, it sounds amazing, and it’s been remixed. We went back to the original negative of the film so we could improve everything. So, that became the core of the idea. It’s like he came to me and said, “Let’s make a film around that.” I’m a long time Beatles fan from when I was a kid, really. (John) was my first hero in pop culture, I suppose, when I was like 12 or 13, and then he died. So those things that meant a lot to you as a kid tend to be the things that are seared into you deep down. So, it is a lifelong dream to make something about him. But really there are three strands to the documentary. One is the musical strand, and that’s why it’s on IMAX. Because if you want to imagine what it was like to see John Lennon live, well this is your best opportunity to get close to that. The second strand is their personal life, what they’re going through. In this very brief period of about 15 months when they moved to New York from London, and they arrive in late ’71 until they move into the famous apartment in the Dakota building in New York in early ’73. So it is that time in this apartment where they’re living in a one room place with a huge bed and a big TV. They’re watching a lot of TV, and they’re mixing with all these radicals like Jerry Rubin and Allen Ginsberg, the poet, and all these people who are very activist and very progressive. They’re recording their own phone calls because they think the FBI are listening into them. So, they want to have their own record of what they’re saying. So, all the way through the film, you hear their intimate phone conversations. That’s the second strand. Then the third strand is what they’re watching on TV in their apartment, what I’m imagining they’re seeing on TV. So, it’s America in that period. So, you’ve got the whole lead up to Watergate, you’ve got the Vietnam War going on, you’ve got the Attica Prison riots, you’ve got also ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and ‘Bonanza’ and all these ads for Chevrolet. It’s like basically what TV would’ve been like for them that they’re seeing. What’s so remarkable, I didn’t set out to make a political film, but when you watch this film, you’re like, holy s**t. America is the same now as it was then. You have somebody running for president being shot live on camera, you have a black woman running for president, you have sit-ins on the campuses because of a foreign war. Then it was Vietnam, now it’s Gaza. It’s just endless the number of similarities and echoes with today. But I also wanted to make a film that worked as a movie, that’s kind of a different movie experience. It’s not like a documentary, it’s not like a drama. It’s something immersive, but hopefully also emotional and obviously musical. You’ve got this great concert at the heart of it.
MF: In addition to the concert footage, as you mentioned, the film also includes footage from TV shows, commercials, and news reports from that time. How did you decide what clips to use and how they would fit in the narrative of the film?
KM: Well, we watched a lot of stuff. I mean, a lot. Hundreds of hours of material. So, you’d go like “I wonder what was happening in foreign policy then?” You’d go and look at all the stories and then go, “None of it’s that interesting.” Or we started looking through news shows and every day, it seemed like in 1972 there was a hijacking. So, we thought, “Well, we have to put in a plane hijacking because they’re just everywhere.” Then you start looking. “Who are the people who are doing the hijacking? Oh, it’s the Black Panthers or some offshoot of the Black Panthers.” So, you go down these wormholes and we tried to relate what was happening in John and Yoko’s life to what’s happening in what you’re seeing in the archive, but also relate it to the songs. So, there’s obviously a sequence which is about Vietnam and about the war and the horrors of the war and why they’re so active in trying to bring peace. We decided to set this footage as quite in your face footage of the war against ‘Instant Karma’, one of John’s great solo songs. Which is counterintuitive because Karma is not obviously a song about warfare or whatever, but it is a counterpoint that really is fun. Each one, the song makes you look at the footage differently and the footage makes you look at the song differently. Then there’s examples where, for instance, when we’re talking about John’s own personal life. He’s talking about how he has a huge chip on his shoulder, and trauma over his childhood. Not being brought up by his mother and father, and how his mother was killed almost in front of him by a drunken policeman driving too fast one night when he was 15. Then we go to ‘Mother’, the song that he wrote about his mother and how he felt abandoned. It’s one of the most moving parts of the film. So yeah, the personal and the political are intertwined in it.
(L to R) John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the documentary ‘One to One: John & Yoko’. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.
MF: Everyone knows that John Lennon was a genius, but Yoko Ono may be the most maligned and misunderstood person in pop culture over the last 60 years. However, I walked away from this film realizing that Yoko was a genius too, and the driving force behind John’s solo music and activism. Did you walk away from this project with a newfound respect for Yoko Ono as well?
KM: 100%. The more I saw of John and Yoko together, the more I realized how deep their love for each other was, but also their respect for each other. And how deeply John respected her, not just as a person, as a lover, but as an artist and how influential she was on him. I mean, for instance, it’s not in the film, but he has said elsewhere that ‘Imagine’, maybe his most famous song, she basically wrote the lyrics. They’re based on the poetry that she wrote in a book called ‘Grapefruit’, and he put the melody to it. So, they were sort of joined at the hip. I think what you realize is that when you look at the story of this period of the breakup of The Beatles and everything. From her point of view, not from his point of view, not from the fan’s point of view, you realize how difficult it was for her. She experienced a lot of racism, and she talks about it in the film. People had voodoo dolls that they stuck pins in of her, and it made her develop a stutter. She lost all her confidence and she had, I think two or three miscarriages at this period because of the pressure on her. You begin to then see her when she’s singing, and she’s singing from these incredible gutsy performances, these wailing songs which are so ahead of their time. It’s like punk, it’s like Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) singing or something like that. You see that she was his equal and maybe in some ways his inspiration.
MF: During the moment in time that the movie covers, John was really trying to distance himself from The Beatles legacy. Can you talk about his mindset at that time and what he was trying to accomplish both personally and professionally?
KM: He arrives in New York and one of the things we have at the beginning of the film is a radio recording in which has got John and Yoko and people are saying, “Welcome to New York.” They’ve obviously only been there for a day or two. John says, “I’m here because I want to move on from The Beatles”, effectively. “I want to be me now,” he says. That’s sort of the feeling you get through the film, is that here’s someone who has been one of the most famous people in the world, in the greatest rock band of all time, but he’s trying to find out “Who am I now? I’ve been through this tumult of fame and everything, but who am I and what should I do now with my life?” He’s only 31 years old. But he’s had this whole legendary career, and he is trying to figure out what do I do next? Who am I? I think that in one way you can see the whole movie as being an answer to that question. Of him struggling to figure out who am I? What do I do?
(L to R) Yoko Ono and John Lennon in the documentary ‘One to One: John & Yoko’. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.
MF: Finally, to follow up on that, do you think John eventually figured that out before his passing in 1980?
KM: I think he finally did. I think that in the years after our movie covers, he had basically a nervous breakdown. He split with Yoko, he went and had what’s called “The Lost Weekend” in LA where he got drunk for a year and a half every day and played music with Harry Nilsson and people. Then it made him miserable. I think he did have a nervous breakdown. I think partly because of all the effort they put in politically in the period we’re covering here, trying to get Nixon defeated, and then they failed miserably. They totally failed. He had to question the whole idea of maybe you can only do small things to change the world. You can raise money in the benefit concert, which is at the heart of this film, for Disabled kids. “I can do that. I can make their lives better. I can do these small things, but I’m not a politician. I’m going to concentrate on the things around me I can control.” I think that in the last period of his life, I think there was a contentment. He had a son, Sean Lennon, and he was basically a house husband. He looked after Sean a lot and still made some music, but he was very reclusive and very quiet. I think he found some sort of peace and some sort of harmony.
pDZo4xW0r3EGrSahgA46o
What is ‘One to One: John & Yoko’ about?
The film is centered around concert footage and audio from Lennon and Ono’s “One to One” benefit concert held at Madison Square Garden in August 1972 on behalf of children at the Willowbrook institution in Staten Island. The “One to One” benefit concerts were the only performances which Lennon performed following The Beatles’ split in 1970. The film also follows the trajectory of their 18-month stay in a Greenwich Village apartment from 1971–1973.
(Left) Paul Mescal plays Lucius in ‘Gladiator II’ from Paramount Pictures. (Right) Joseph Quinn plays Emperor Geta in ‘Gladiator II’ from Paramount Pictures.
Preview:
‘Gladiator II’s Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn are reportedly playing Paul McCartney and George Harrison in new Beatles biopics.
Sam Mendes is putting the films together.
Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson are also linked to the movies.
Ever since we first learned months ago that ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Empire of Light’ director Sam Mendes had come up with an ambitious plan to craft not one, but four interlinked music biopics about possibly the most famous group in the world –– that would be The Beatles –– everyone has been wondering who would land the coveted, challenging roles of main members Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
That is now really coming into focus as, while nothing has been confirmed by either Mendes or the studio, the latest word from Deadline is that ‘Gladiator II’s Joseph Quinn is aboard to play George Harrison.
(Left) Barry Keoghan in ‘Masters of the Air,’ premiering January 26, 2024 on Apple TV+. (Right) Ringo Starr in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. Photo: United Artists.
And talking of other people letting slip about potential casting, we also recently had Ridley Scott jokingly complaining that his ‘Gladiator II’ star Paul Mescal may not be able to reunite with him for the director’s next movie ‘The Dog Stars’ because of a clash with the Beatles movies.
Here’s what Scott said about Mescal acting in his next project when asked by Christopher Nolan in a conversational Q&A held this week at the Director’s Guild of America:
“Yes. Maybe. Paul is actually stacked up, doing the Beatles next. So I may have to let him go.”
It’s an odd coincidence that two ‘Gladiator II’ stars are both now linked to the Beatles movies, but we shouldn’t really be surprised –– both are in-demand talents, with Quinn also having just worked on Marvel’s new ‘Fantastic Four’ movie (and according to Deadline’s sources toting a guitar around set as he practices guitar for the McCartney role.)
Read on for more details on the Beatles film and the other current rumored casting…
What’s the plan for Sam Mendes’ Beatles films?
(L to R) George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon in ‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.’
With the backing of Sony Pictures Classics –– not to mention being granted full life story and music rights by Beatles holding company Apple Corps Ltd. (no, not the company behind the iPhone), surviving members McCartney and Starr and the families of deceased colleagues Lennon and Harrison –– Mendes will make four different biopics, covering each Beatles’ experiences during the band’s rise to massive popularity.
A strict time period for what the movies will cover has yet to be announced.
Here’s what Mendes had to say about the project:
“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies.”
And this is the statement from Mendes’ Neal Street Productions partner Pippa Harris:
“We intend this to be a uniquely thrilling, and epic cinematic experience: four films, told from four different perspectives which tell a single story about the most celebrated band of all time. To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege. From our first meeting with [Sony execs] Tom Rothman and Elizabeth Gabler, it was clear that they shared both our passion and ambition for this project, and we can’t think of a more perfect home than Sony Pictures.”
Who else has been rumored for Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics?
(Left) Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich in ‘The Iron Claw.’ Photo: A24.
Alongside Mescal, Quinn and Keoghan (who we’ve heard was originally hired to play Emperor Geta in ‘Gladiator II,’ only to be replaced by Quinn when scheduling issues reared their heads), the buzz for John Lennon has been around Harris Dickinson.
Is it wrong that there’s a tiny part of us hoping for Mendes to shock the world by announcing that he’s instead chosen the actors who played the Fab Four in 2007’s ‘Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story’? Yes, the world demands that Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Justin Long and Jason Schwartzman return as John, Paul George and Ringo!
Given the scope of the movies, the current aim is to have the movies in theaters by 2027, with the plan for their release dates still to be announced. Will we see them release a month apart? Spread out across the years? It’s too early to tell.
“You have to match the boldness of the idea with a bold release strategy. There hasn’t been an enterprise like this before, and you can’t think about it in traditional releasing terms
(L to R) Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon in ‘The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert.’
(Left) Barry Keoghan in ‘Masters of the Air,’ premiering January 26, 2024 on Apple TV+. (Right) Ringo Starr in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. Photo: United Artists.
Preview:
Ringo Starr says Barry Keoghan will play him for director Sam Mendes’ ambitious multi-biopic plan
He’ll make one film about each member’s time in the iconic band.
Apple Corps and the band have granted full life rights.
In fact, his idea was not to simply make one about the Liverpool-based supergroup whose music has dominated corners of the public consciousness for years, but four –– one each for members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, their stories intertwining to produce a fuller picture of their rise to pop and rock stardom in the 1960s.
Naturally, there has been feverish speculation about which rising stars or establish actors might be cast to play the four Beatles (not to mention those who were in the group before they hit it big and any appropriate partners etc.)
“I think it’s great. I believe he’s somewhere taking drum lessons, and I hope not too many.”
Yep, Ringo’s got jokes.
What’s the plan for Sam Mendes’ Beatles films?
(L to R) George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon in ‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.’
With the backing of Sony Pictures Classics –– not to mention being granted full life story and music rights by Beatles holding company Apple Corps Ltd. (no, not the company behind the Mac), surviving members McCartney and Starr and the families of deceased colleagues Lennon and Harrison –– Mendes will make four different biopics, covering each Beatles’ experiences during the band’s rise to massive popularity.
A strict time period for what the movies will cover has yet to be announced.
Here’s what Mendes had to say about the project:
“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies.”
And this is the statement from Mendes’ Neal Street Productions partner Pippa Harris:
“We intend this to be a uniquely thrilling, and epic cinematic experience: four films, told from four different perspectives which tell a single story about the most celebrated band of all time. To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege. From our first meeting with [Sony execs] Tom Rothman and Elizabeth Gabler, it was clear that they shared both our passion and ambition for this project, and we can’t think of a more perfect home than Sony Pictures.”
Who else has been rumored for Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics?
Paul Mescal plays Lucius in ‘Gladiator II’ from Paramount Pictures.
At this point, we can only imagine the size of the casting net Mendes and his producers have been throwing for the project, not to mention the clamoring of agents to get their clients either a meeting or an audition.
As for the other main Beatles, the rumors so far have swirled around ‘Gladiator II’s Paul Mescal circling the role of Paul McCartney, ‘The Iron Claw’s Harris Dickinson linked to John Lennon, and Mescal’s fellow ‘Gladiator II’ actor Joseph Quinn (who will also be appearing in next year’s ‘Fantastic Four’ movie for Marvel) to portray George Harrison.
Essentially, it’s been a who’s who of who’s hot. Mendes, of course, will make his choice in due time (assuming he hasn’t already) and we’ll have to wait for a big announcement to see who actually ends up on screen.
Mendes’ movies will be highly anticipated, and not just for the scope of their ambition –– you need to find a way to stand out in the music biopic business; just look at the upcoming film on the life of Robbie Williams, which sees the pop star brought to life as a CG ape.
The Beatles, of course, are on a whole other level.
And interest in them continues to be high –– we’ve only just seen the latest documentary about the group, ‘Beatles ‘64’, which blends previously-shown footage with some new interviews.
VK9b3OHGP4aqMqx9GjSB56
When will Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics hit theaters?
Given the scope of the movies, the current aim is to have the movies in theaters by 2027, with the plan for their release dates still to be announced. Will we see them release a month apart? Spread out across the years? It’s too early to tell.
“You have to match the boldness of the idea with a bold release strategy. There hasn’t been an enterprise like this before, and you can’t think about it in traditional releasing terms.”
(L to R) Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon in ‘The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert.’
(Left) Director Sam Mendes from ‘Empire of the Light.’ (Right) George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon in ‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.’
Preview:
Sam Mendes has a biopic plan for The Beatles.
He’ll make one film about each member’s time in the iconic band.
Apple Corps and the band have granted full life rights.
Everything about The Beatles these days seems to be outsized. You have their legendary status, their record-breaking chart accomplishments and, more recently, Peter Jackson’s epic documentary limited series ‘The Beatles: Get Back’, released on Disney+ in 2021 and running for an astonishing 468 minutes.
uYmIRDAmMipcZeJgB9Crx4
Do you want to know a secret? Now ‘1917’ and ‘American Beauty’ director Sam Mendes has a plan for something that challenges that in terms of scope and ambition.
While music biopics are all the rage at the moment (the most recent release, ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ has done decent business at the box office, and there’s a film about British singer Amy Winehouse due in May), Mendes is developing something that goes beyond the norm.
(L to R) Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon in ‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.’
With the backing of Sony Pictures Classics –– not to mention being granted full life story and music rights by Beatles holding company Apple Corps Ltd. (not the iPhone gang), surviving members McCartney and Starr and the families of deceased colleagues Lennon and Harrison –– Mendes will make four different biopics, covering each Beatles’ experiences during the band’s rise to massive popularity.
Though a strict time period for what the movies will cover has yet to be announced, the idea is for the stories to (naturally intersect), looking to get a fuller, clearer picture of their time than any one movie could hope to accomplish.
Here’s what Mendes had to say about the project:
“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies.”
And this is the statement from Mendes’ Neal Street Productions partner Pippa Harris:
“We intend this to be a uniquely thrilling, and epic cinematic experience: four films, told from four different perspectives which tell a single story about the most celebrated band of all time. To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege. From our first meeting with [Sony execs] Tom Rothman and Elizabeth Gabler, it was clear that they shared both our passion and ambition for this project, and we can’t think of a more perfect home than Sony Pictures.”
Given the scope of the movies, the current aim is to have the movies in theaters by 2027, with the plan for their release dates still to be announced. Will we see them release a month apart? Spread out across the years? Will they come together? Any way it happens, we’ll dig it.
(L to R) Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon in ‘The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert.’
The Disney+ documentary series covers the making of the Beatles‘ 1970 album ‘Let It Be,’ and uses new footage originally filmed for Michael Lindsay-Hogg‘s 1970 documentary of the same name. ‘The Rooftop Concert’ centers on footage from the end of the documentary, which highlights Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in their final concert together as a band.
But the Beatles are no strangers to appearing in movies, having starred in several feature films, an animated movie, and countless documentaries. There have also been several fictional films made about members of the band, as well as movies that celebrate the music and legacy of the group.
In honor of the new IMAX concert movie, Moviefone counts down the top ten Beatles movies of all-time! For this list, we are including not only movies starring the Beatles, but also films about the band and their musical influence around the world.
Released in 1967, the film was written, directed, and starred the Beatles at the height of their psychedelic phase. The movie follows a group of people on a bus tour who begin to experience strange and magical encounters, and was inspired by Ken Kesey’s own bus, Further, and his work with the Merry Pranksters.
The movie marks the third outing for the band starring in their own narrative film, and while it is probably the least appealing of any of the movies that the Beatles have appeared in, it does feature a performance of “I Am the Walrus’ with the band wearing animal masks.
This documentary directed by Oscar-winner Ron Howard focuses on the Beatles’ touring years between 1962 and 1966, from their first gig in Liverpool to their final concert at Candlestick Park in 1966.
The highlight of the documentary is 30 minutes of unseen footage from the band’s 1965 Shea Stadium concert, which had its sound remastered by Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin.
Filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood made her directorial debut with this 2009 film about John Lennon’s teenage years, based on a biography written by Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird.
The film stars Aaron Johnson as a young Lennon and follows his complicated relationship with his Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his mother (Anne-Marie Duff), as well as the creation of his first band, The Quarrymen, which eventually became the Beatles. Johnson gives a quiet and beautiful performance as Lennon, which gained a lot of attention from Hollywood and basically launched his career.
This 1970 documentary about the making of the band’s final album ‘Let it Be’ marked the last original film the Beatles would release before breaking up. The movie documents the interpersonal relationships between band members and illuminates some of the turmoil that would eventually lead to their dismantling.
The highlight of the documentary is an impromptu rooftop performance, which sadly would become the last time the Fab Four ever played in public. Unused footage from the making of this documentary is what Peter Jackson utilized for ‘The Beatles: Get Back.’
The story follows a struggling musician (Himesh Patel) who through a series of events now finds himself the only person on the planet who has ever heard of the Beatles and plagiarizes their music for his own gain. In addition to Patel, the film also stars Lily James, Kate McKinnon, and in a hilarious cameo, Ed Sheeran.
Directed by Julie Taymor (‘Frida’) and based on an original story by Taymor and screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the film utilizes over thirty songs composed by members of the Beatles.
The movie also uses characters from Beatles songs like Lucy (‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’), Jude (‘Hey Jude’), Max (“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’), Sadie (‘Sexy Sadie’), Jo-Jo (‘Get Back’), and Prudence (‘Dear Prudence’). The film features an excellent cast that includes Evan Rachel Wood,Jim Sturgess, Logan Marshall-Green, Dylan Baker, Bill Irwin, Eddie Izzard, Salma Hayek, Joe Cocker, and Bono.
This 1994 movie directed by Iain Softly, centers on the Beatles original bass guitarist Stu Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) and his relationship with Astrid Kirchherr (Sheryl Lee), which led to him leaving the band before they had worldwide success. In addition to Dorff and Lee, the film also features Ian Hart as John Lennon, Gary Bakewell as Paul McCartney, Chris O’Neil as George Harrison, and Scot Williams as Pete Best, the band’s original drummer.
But the best part of this movie might be the soundtrack, which featured an all-star band performing songs that the Beatles played in their early days. The musicians include David Pirner from Soul Asylum, Greg Dulli from The Afghan Whigs, Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, Mike Mills from R.E.M., Henry Rollins from Black Flag, and Dave Grohl from Nirvana.
The Beatles second film, ‘Help!’ follows the group as they struggle to record a new album and try to protect Ringo Starr from an evil cult out to steal one of his rings. Directed by Richard Lester (‘Superman II’), the film’s plot is boarder-line ridiculous but does mark the last time the band’s pre-psychedelic years were captured on film.
The highlight of the movie is that the Beatles were just being themselves and having fun, which is a stark contrast to their disillusioned behavior by the time they made ‘Let it Be.’
The first of their many movies, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ follows the band at the height of Beatlemania. What I like about this movie is that it is just a “slice of Beatles life,” and brings the audience behind the scenes to see what it would have been like to be a Beatle.
They mostly just avoid fans, make TV appearances, and try to manage Paul’s “crazy” grandfather, played by Wilfred Brambell. Directed by Richard Lester, the movie was nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and ranked 88th on the British Film Institute’s greatest British movies of the 20th century list.
Not only is ‘Yellow Submarine’ the best of Beatles movie of all-time, it’s one of the best animated movies of all-time. Directed by Charles Dunning, the film marks the fourth movie released by the Beatles. While the band technically doesn’t appear in the film or even voice their own characters, they do perform the music, which includes ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,’ ‘Nowhere Man,’ ‘All You Need Is Love,’ and of course, ‘Yellow Submarine.’
The “totally trippy” movie begins in Pepperland, the home of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, where the music-hating Blue Meanies have just attacked. Young Fred (Lance Percival) is tasked with fleeing Pepperland in a Yellow Submarine to find help to battle the Blue Meanies, eventually returning with Paul (Geoffrey Hughes), John (John Clive), George (Peter Batten), and Ringo (Paul Angelis), to save the day. The animated film also acts as a great gateway for parents who want to introduce their kids to the music of the Beatles.
Producers Brian and Dayna Lee of AF Creative Media, and Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler of Aged in Wood, have acquired stage rights to the film.
The story follows the future Beatle as a young man, when he starts up the band Quarrymen and meets teen Paul McCartney. It focuses on Lennon’s relationship with the two women who played pivotal roles in his life, his mother and the aunt that raised him.
As with the film, the stage production would not use any Beatles songs. Instead, Deadline reports the producers envision “a play with music” that incorporates the era’s hits, particularly songs by the African-American musicians who so inspired Lennon .
There are no immediate plans to seek additional life or music rights; producers said Yoko Ono is aware of the project but has no involvement.
The romantic movie telling the story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono has taken another major step to the big screen.
Deadline reports that Universal in talks to option the rights and Jean-Marc Vallée (“Dallas Buyers Club,” “Big Little Lies”) set to direct from a script by Anthony McCarten (“Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Theory of Everything”).
Ono is on board as a producer, alongside Michael De Luca (“The Social Network,” “Captain Phillips”). Last year, when the project first started to coalesce, De Luca said the movie will “focus on ripe and relevant themes of love, courage and activism in the U.S. – with the intention of inspiring today’s youth to stand up for and have a clear vision for the world they want.”
Lennon and Ono met in the late ’60s when he was part of the world-famous Beatles and she was an up-and-coming artist. She played a significant part in Lennon leaving the band to forge a solo career.
The couple were also passionate peace activists during the Vietnam war. Though they experienced ups and downs in their relationship, they were constant companions until his murder in 1980. Ono remains the gatekeeper of Lennon’s legacy.
The film would not cover Lennon’s death, but focus on the journey of the couple. It will have to strike a deal for the music, but has access to Lennon’s estate and library of songs.
