Coo Coo Ca Choo! According to Deadline, James Norton (Little Women, Happy Valley, McMafia) is circling Sam Mendes’ The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, with Mendes casting Norton as The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein.
Previously, outlets revealed that Paul Mescal would play Paul McCartney, with Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon. The four-film event will center on one particular Beatle for each installment, with Epstein appearing in all four chapters. That said, we have yet to learn how much screentime Epstein will have concerning each chapter.
Epstein first met the Beatles in 1961 at a concert at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. Despite having no experience managing musicians, Epstein signed the Fab Four to a contract. Later, the collective signed with EMI’s Parlophone outfit, the world as their oyster as word of their rising fame caught fire.
Last week, four-time Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan was cast as Linda McCartney, the wife of Paul 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.
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