Four feature films from each band member’s perspective are set to debut in 2027.
Sony Pictures Entertainment and director Sam Mendes are set to tell the legendary story of The Beatles with four distinct theatrical feature films.
The movies mark the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles—Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison—have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
Conceived by Mendes—the A-list director behind 1917, Skyfall, Spectre and Road to Perdition—the movies, each featuring one band member’s point-of-view, will intersect to tell the legendary story of the most acclaimed rock band in history.
Mendes will direct all four films and produce alongside his Neal Street Productions partner Pippa Harris and Neal Street’s Julie Pastor. Jeff Jones will executive produce for Apple Corps Ltd.
“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,” said Sam Mendes, in a statement released on Feb. 20.
“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,” added producer Pippa Harris.
“I know I speak for our CEO Tony Vinciquerra, who was instrumental in making this happen, and every Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group colleague around the world when I say: ‘yeah, yeah, yeah!’” said Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony’s Motion Picture Group.
“Theatrical movie events today must be culturally seismic. Sam’s daring, large-scale idea is that and then some. Pairing his premiere filmmaking team, with the music and the stories of four young men who changed the world, will rock audiences all over the globe.”
In 2021, another A-list director, Peter Jackson, helmed the eight-hour Disney+ docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, which followed the making of the band’s classic 1970 album, Let it Be.
The Beatles’ songs also inspired the 2007 musical Across the Universe and 1978’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.