Sam Mendes to direct four Beatles biopics, a film on each member

NEW YORK – British director Sam Mendes has signed on to direct not one but four biopics about English rock band The Beatles, each telling the story of the Fab Four from a different member’s point of view.

Apple Corps – guardian of The Beatles’ musical interests – Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr as well as the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for the scripted films – a first – which will be financed and released by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The films are planned for release in 2027.

“I’m honoured 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,” Mendes said in a statement on Feb 20.

The announcement teased that the films would be released in an “innovative and ground-breaking” manner, but did not offer details.

In recent years, Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of American Beauty (1999), has helped refresh the James Bond franchise with Skyfall (2012) and told the story of two British lance corporals in World War I in 1917 (2019).

As a theatre director, the 58-year-old showed an ability to work with complicated biographical material over a long stretch of time with The Lehman Trilogy, a saga about the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers that earned him a Tony Award in 2022.

Biopics about pop stars have grown popular in recent years. Bob Marley: One Love was on track to earn an estimated US$33.2 million (S$44.6 million) in North America last weekend, following the success of films including Elvis in 2022 and Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018.

The Beatles have shown strength with movie audiences since they starred in A Hard Day’s Night in 1964, playing versions of themselves.

Their fans continue to show an appetite for expansive projects. New Zealand film director Peter Jackson’s documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, an over-seven-hour project, was released to much acclaim on Disney+ in 2021. NYTIMES