Sam Mendes to direct four separate Beatles movies on Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr
John, Paul, George and Ringo will each be the subject of a different feature film.
John, Paul, George and Ringo will each be the subject of a different feature film.
Director Sam Mendes plans to make four separate movies, one from each Beatles member’s point of view. They will intersect to “tell the astonishing story of the greatest band in history,” according to a press release. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the families of the late John Lennon and George Harrison, have granted full life story and music rights for the scripted films.
“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,” Mendes said in a statement.
Sony Pictures Entertainment will finance and distribute all four films theatrically in 2027. Details about release plans will be shared closer to the release, but the studio promises the strategy will be “innovative and groundbreaking.”
It would certainly be a risky endeavor to premiere all four films in the same year. However, musical biopics have been surging in popularity at the box office. Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” and Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love” were bigger than expected, while Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” a cinematic rendering of her record-breaking concert, outperformed several Hollywood franchises in terms of global ticket sales. Several others are in the works; Antoine Fuqua is turning Michael Jackson’s life story into a feature film, Amy Winehouse is getting the biopic treatment with “Back to Black” and Ridley Scott is in talks to direct a movie about the rise of the Bee Gees.
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