Sony Pictures has found its writers for Sam Mendes’s ambitious four-part biopic about The Beatles, with Tony winner Jez Butterworth, Conclave best adapted screenplay Oscar winner Peter Straughan, and Bafta and Tony Award-winning Adolescence writer Jack Thorne on board.
As previously announced, the features will star Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.
Sony Pictures is financing and distributing worldwide “with full theatrical windows” in April 2028. That announcement came out of CinemaCon recently. While the studio is yet to announce precisely how it will do this, motion picture chairman and CEO Tom Rothman raised eyebrows when he said the release will be “the first bingeable theatrical experience”.
All four films – each told from a Fab Four band member’s point of view – will intersect. This is the first time Apple Corps and The Beatles have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
Officially called The Beatles—A Four-Film Cinematic Event, the project is a Neal Street production in association with Apple Corps for Sony Pictures. Mendes produces with his Neal Street Productions partner Pippa Harris and Neal Street’s Julie Pastor, alongside Alexandra Derbyshire (Wonka).
Butterworth’s recent screenwriting credits include Ford v Ferrari, Spectre, Black Mass, and Edge Of Tomorrow. He won the Tony best play award for The Ferryman, and his latest play The Hills Of California just earned seven Tony nominations.
Besides Conclave, Straughan co-wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with his late wife, Bridget O’Connor, for which they received an Oscar nomination and won the Bafta for adapted screenplay. Film credits include Our Brand Is Crisis, and Frank, and for television, the Bafta-wining Hilary Mantel adaptation Wolf Hall, and the sequel, Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light.
Thorne’s recent Netflix series Adolescence became a sensation when it debuted earlier this year, and his film credits include The Swimmers, Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2, The Aeronauts, and Wonder. He wrote the Tony and Olivier Award-winning Harry Potter And The Cursed Child.
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