An epic Beatles biopic is coming — but you’ll have to watch four separate movies
It’s a bona fide British Invasion.
Four interconnected movies about The Beatles, each focusing on a different band member, will hit theaters starting in 2027, Sony and Apple Corps (the Beatles’ media company) announced on Tuesday.
Sam Mendes, the ambitious director of “1917” and “Skyfall,” will helm the entire magical mystery tour of biopics that explore the lives of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
“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,” producer Pippa Harris, of Neal Street Productions, said in a statement.
“To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege.”
McCartney, Starr and the families of the late Lennon and Harrison gave the effort the go-ahead through Apple Corps.
The order of the films’ releases, or whether they will hit theaters simultaneously, is unknown. Casting has not yet been announced.
Sony Music Publishing, conveniently, owns the vast majority of The Beatles’ song catalog.
Musician biopics have proved a mostly reliable genre at the box office.
The Queen story “Bohemian Rhapsody” raked in $910 million worldwide, while “Elvis” managed $288 million and the Elton John flick “Rocketman” did $195 million.
And just this past weekend, “Bob Marley: One Love” beat expectations and grossed $81 million worldwide.
Still, the Mendes project is unusual in that it will tell the story of the group’s ascent from four separate points of view. That tricky format is more common on television (Season 4 of “Arrested Development”) or in novels (“Midnight Sun,” Stephanie Meyer’s retread of her own “Twilight”).
Four movies will require four pricey ticket purchases.
The Beatles have endured in the culture since they first exploded in the early 1960s — even after the assassination of Lennon outside the Dakota in 1980 and the death of Harrison in 2001.
The British boy band has been back in a major way lately.
A single called “Now and Then” that was completed last year with the help of AI hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was featured extensively in the new action-comedy “Argylle.”
And director Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary “The Beatles: Get Back” won the Emmy for Best Documentary series.
