Writer claims Curtis took full credit for Beatles film

A SCRIPTWRITER has accused Richard Curtis of “taking credit for everything” on the Beatles-themed comedy Yesterday.

Curtis was given the writing credit for the 2019 film, which hinges on the conceit that one man knows the Fab Four’s back catalogue in a world where they are unknown.

Jack Barth, a US scriptwriter, claims he penned the idea first in 2012 under the title Cover Version, which he agreed to sell to the British filmmaker under the impression he would simply be producing it.

But the writer claims Curtis demanded the sole writing credit for the purchased work, while he received only a “story by” acknowledgement.

“I didn’t realise Richard was going to do this to me until the week that the film was released,” Barth told Uproxx. “I didn’t want to jeopardise the film. I got lawyers to contact Richard’s lawyers and they just dragged it out.

“By the time I realised I needed to get the story out there myself, it was really hard to pitch something that was for a film that had come out eight months earlier.”

Barth said he believed the film was simply going to be produced by Curtis, having worked on the treatment for years before passing it to Hollywood producers who knew the filmmaker.

In the film, directed by Danny Boyle, the lead character, played by Himesh Patel, is infatuated with Ellie (Lily James). Barth’s Cover Version has the male lead in a less chaste relationship than Curtis imagined, and his knowledge of the Fab Four back catalogue leads only to modestly improved gigs.

In past interviews, Curtis explained

‘I didn’t realise Richard was going to do this to me until the week that the film was released’

that he received the premise of the film treatment in a one-line pitch then wrote the rest of the material himself.

Speaking to Slashfilm in 2019, Curtis said: “Someone rang me and said, you know, would you be interested … the film with this one-line plot: a musician who’s the only person to remember The Beatles.

“I said, well no, don’t tell me any more. Let me just write my own film.

He also told The Wall Street Journal: “When I wrote my version I hadn’t actually read Jack’s; that was the deal.”

Representatives of Curtis have been approached for comment.