4 biopics for the price of 1

As the two remaining Beatles are now in their 80’s, the feeling of urgency that comes with protecting their legacy has never been higher. With good reason: over 6 decades since they burst onto the scene in their native Liverpool before taking over the world, the sheer importance of what John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were able to achieve has only been reaffirmed over time. Very few would argue that they were the single most important popular music outfit of the past century and their influence is felt to this day in virtually every musical genre.

That is why, in the past few years, music lovers in general and Beatles lovers in particular have been rejoicing over a series of landmark releases: Peter Jackson’s incredible almost 9-hour long Get Back documentary, which chronicles in extraordinary detail the making of the band’s last published album, Let It Be; the publication of a brand new Beatles track, “Now and Then”, based on a Lennon tape that was reworked using the AI created for the aforementioned documentary (in other words, thank you again Mr. Jackson); and, perhaps more anecdotally, that carpool karaoke session that James Corden had with Mr. McCartney across the streets of Liverpool, tooking him back to his childhood home before ending with an eye-watering surprise gig at a local pub. Put simply, we are grateful.

But it’s not over. A few days ago, we heard the news that acclaimed (British) director Sam Mendes would oversee the making of 4 new biopics, one for each member of the band, to be released in 2027 in innovative ways we still don’t know the details of. In and of itself, this piece of news is quite historic: first of all, this is the first time the Beatles are giving away the rights over their story (and music) to a filmmaker. Second, the concept of having a separate biopic for each band member sure sounds promising: despite never-ending debate about who the driving force(s) really was(were) in the group, the irrefutable truth has slowly come to light that every single one of them is a bone fide genius in their own right. Yes, even Ringo.

The last thing we can only speculate on at this point is the way these intertwined story lines will be structured: with modern day streaming platforms and modular release strategies, not to mention technical abilities Spielberg could only dream of when he made Jaws, there is a fantastic story to be told in the most creative of ways. Mendes ranks among the greatest living directors. And his subject matter in this case is unparalleled. So there is hope that the story of the Beatles will be displayed in a way that beautifully caps off 7 decades of musicianship… if not more!