How the game-changing Beatles biopics could come together
WITH SAM MENDES’ FAB FOUR FILMS INCOMING, EMPIRE TAKES A MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR OF STORYTELLING POSSIBILITIES
THE BEATLES WERE so groundbreaking that a conventional biopic was never going to suffice. They deserve something more audacious and ambitious. Which is why Sam Mendes’ grand plan to direct not one, not two, not three, but four films about John, Paul, George and Ringo, to be shot back-to-back and released in 2027, is so exciting. He’s asked the big question: what would The Beatles do? And acted accordingly. Each movie will focus on an individual Beatle, with their stories ultimately overlapping. But what can we expect? Here’s what we’d like to see.
JOHN LENNON
THE PERSONALITY: The force of nature that drove The Beatles, Lennon has been played on screen more than any other member of the group, by the likes of Ian Hart (a couple of times) and Aaron Taylor-johnson. But perhaps Mendes’ movie will finally capture all sides of Lennon in one package: the wit, the charisma, the darkness, the restlessness, the occasional madness and, of course, the genius.
THE MOMENT: Did Lennon, then in the thrall of LSD, really convene a meeting of the band in 1968 to tell them all that he was Jesus Christ? Did Ringo really respond by declaring that he was going for lunch? Perhaps we’ll finally know the answer. Another moment that will surely make it in: the time he met Yoko Ono, and everything changed.
THE MUSIC: Picking a single Lennon Beatles track is almost impossible. There’s ‘Help!’, the jauntiest song ever written about depression. The stark beauty of ‘In My Life’. But we’d love to see and hear Lennon at his most experimental with ‘I Am The Walrus’. Goo goo g’joob, indeed.
PAUL MCCARTNEY
THE PERSONALITY: If the first half of The Beatles’ short career was shaped by Lennon, roughly speaking, the second half saw Mccartney, the master melodicist, come to the fore. He drove projects like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Magical Mystery Tour, and the medley that concludes their last recorded work, Abbey Road. His movie might see him continue to emerge from Lennon’s long shadow. THE MOMENT: It’s already been documented so well in Peter Jackson’s Get Back, but that time he conjures that song from thin air just by strumming on his bass. How would Mendes depict this moment of pure creativity?
THE MUSIC: Throw a dart. Pick one. ‘Yesterday’. ‘Hey Jude’. ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. The man never missed. Well, except for maybe ‘Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da’.
GEORGE HARRISON
THE PERSONALITY: The Quiet Beatle, they called him. Which wasn’t entirely true — like the other Beatles, Harrison was blessed with that dry Liverpudlian wit and a way with words — although it took a long time for him to truly find his voice within the band and express himself through something other than his lead guitar. That evolution could be truly compelling, particularly as Harrison becomes more spiritually attuned and develops his interest in Eastern philosophy and sounds.
THE MOMENT: We don’t want to simply zero in on moments from Get Back, such as the time Harrison quit the band for a (very) short while, but it’s hard to ignore. Here was a truly great guitarist and songwriter who just happened to be in a group containing two of the greatest songwriters of all time, who were perhaps less than encouraging about his efforts. The psychological toll of that would be fascinating to explore.
THE MUSIC: It has to be ‘Something’, a contender for the best song in the entire Beatles discography.
RINGO STARR
THE PERSONALITY: Late to the party, Ringo didn’t join The Beatles until August 1962, when he replaced Pete Best, but didn’t miss a beat after that. Ebullient and energetic, perhaps his film could dispel the notion that he wasn’t even the band’s best drummer.
THE MOMENT: When a young Scouser called Richard Starkey sheds that name while playing for Rory Storm And The Hurricanes, and all because he wore rings. Frodo was already taken. THE MUSIC: He sang ‘Yellow Submarine’, ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, and a bunch of covers, but as a songwriter he contributed two tunes to The Beatles’ canon. We’d love to see the moment when he wrote ‘Don’t Pass Me By’, in particular the lines: “I’m sorry that I doubted you/i was so unfair/you were in a car crash/and I lost your hair.” Pure poetry.
THE BEATLES FILMS WILL BE IN CINEMAS IN 2027