Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes has revealed the cast for his four-film Beatles biopic series, an ambitious project that’s been slated as “the first binge-able theatrical experience.”
Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon, Paul Mescal plays Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan will portray Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn plays George Harrison in The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event.
Each of the four films will focus on one member of the band, while intersecting with the others to tell the story of the Fab Four.
Dickinson is best known for starring in 2024’s Babygirl, while Mescal was recently the leading man in Gladiator II. Meanwhile, Keoghan made a splash with his Oscar-nominated performance in the 2022 film The Banshees of Inisherin and 2023 role in Saltburn, and Quinn is well-known for his work in Stranger Things as well as Gladiator II.
Mendes spoke about the project at the CinemaCon industry event in Las Vegas on Monday, where he also brought the newly announced cast on stage.
“We’re not just making one film about the Beatles – we’re making four,” Mendes told the crowd. “They’re four very different human beings. Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply. But together, all four films will tell the story of the greatest band in history.”
There’s certainly plenty of intriguing moments of intersection in The Beatles history. Chief among them is the moment a 16-year-old John Lennon and 15-year-old Paul McCartney first met at a church fete in Liverpool in 1957. From there, following a tenure with band members Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, the final Beatles line-up of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr took shape in time for their first single, Love Me Do, in 1962. Beatlemania would take full effect soon after the single dropped in the U.S., followed by their legendary appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. By the time they released Let It Be, their final album as a band, in 1970, the Beatles had amassed a timeless body of work that cemented their legacy as arguably the most famous and influential band of all time.
While numerous documentaries have tackled the iconic band’s story, Mendes – along with Sony Pictures Entertainment – is the first to be granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film on the Fab Four.
“Frankly, we need big cinematic events to get people out of the house,” Mendes said of the groundbreaking release schedule that will see each film released in April 2028.
Mendes, who conceived of the idea and pitched it to several production companies in Hollywood, said in a press release announcing the project last year that he landed on Sony because of their “passion for the idea and commitment to propelling these films theatrically in an innovative and exciting way.”
The new film series is part of an ongoing effort by the band’s surviving members to keep the band’s legacy alive. Most recently, McCartney and Starr released Now and Then, a track that was billed as “the last Beatles song” and utilized AI technology to incorporate vocals from an unfinished demo recorded by John Lennon in the 1970s and guitar sessions from George Harrison in the 1990s, as well as new contributions of their own. Their efforts would prove fruitful – the song would go on to top charts in the U.K. and even won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance this year.
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