Sam Mendes’ epic four-movie biopic on the biggest group in Rock music continues to take shape. The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event has already established its Fab Four with Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon. Now, Deadline is reporting that Four-time Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan is cast as Paul McCartney’s past wife, Linda McCartney.
Per Deadline, “Linda McCartney was a photographer, musician and animal rights activist who rose to prominence in the 1960s with her portraiture of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors. The first female photographer to have her work on the cover of Rolling Stone, she married Paul McCartney in 1969 and worked alongside him as part of his band Wings in his post-Beatles career. An advocate for vegetarianism and animal welfare, she launched her own company, Linda McCartney Foods, in 1991. She died from cancer in 1998.”
Jez Butterworth (Ford v Ferrari), Peter Straughan (Conclave), and Jack Thorne (Adolescence) have been tapped to write The Beatles — A Four Film Cinematic Event. It remains unclear whether each writer will be responsible for a separate film or if they will collaborate across all four installments.
Sam Mendes’ production company, Neal Street Productions, has partnered with Sony Pictures Entertainment for the movies. This is the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and the members of the Beatles—Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison—have granted the full life story and music rights for a scripted movie. Mendes will direct all four movies, each focusing on a separate band member.
Mendes officially unveiled the cast at CinemaCon earlier this year. He’d been “trying to do a [Beatles] film for years” but ultimately gave up because “the story was too big for one film.” He didn’t think a TV series would work either. “There had to be a way to tell the epic story for a new generation,” Mendes said. “I can assure you there is still plenty left to explore and I think we found a way to do that.“
The Beatles — A Four Film Cinematic Event will be released in April 2028.
