Having set himself the unprecedented task of making not one but four interconnected biopics about Liverpudlian lads (and undisputed greatest band of all time) The Beatles, filmmaker Sam Mendes has been working eight days a week to assemble the team to help bring his four film cinematic event to life. And having revealed that Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson, and Joseph Quinn will be playing the Fab Four at CinemaCon just last month, today Deadline are reporting that a suitably terrific three screenwriters have been brought aboard to pen the movies.
Per Deadline‘s sources, Adolescence scribe Jack Thorne, Mendes’ Spectre collaborator Jez Butterworth, and Oscar-winning Conclave writer Peter Straughan have all come together to tackle the screenplays for the ambitious undertaking, currently somewhat nebulously titled The Beatles — A Four Film Cinematic Event. At this stage however, we don’t know whether the writers are tackling a movie each, with another as-yet-unnamed writer handling the fourth film, or whether they’re going to work together as a sort of mini writers’ room and handle the whole thing together. What we do know is that they’ve got three Oliviers, three Tonys, a couple of BAFTAs, and an Oscar between them, that they’re the first scribes who’ll be able to say they’ve written a Beatles project with full life and music rights to the band and its members, and that they’ll be writing for a Paul Mescal Paul McCartney, a Barry Keoghan Ringo Starr, a Harris Dickinson John Lennon, and a Joseph Quinn George Harrison. All of which is to say, under Mendes’ direction, we reckon they’ll manage the long and winding road ahead just fine.
Set to release in cinemas throughout April 2028, each of Mendes’ four Beatles biopics will tell the story of the band from a different member’s point-of-view, with the aim being to create a comprehensive portrait of the rock’n’rollers as the individual parts intersect. We’ll find out whether Mendes manages to make it work with a little help from his friends, or if the end result’s just a little here, there, and everywhere in about three years’ time. Don’t let us down, lads!
