More intel on Sony‘s distribution plan for Sam Mendes‘ hotly anticipated Beatles films has arrived.
Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, respectively, with the four features currently slated to release a week apart in the same month in 2028.
Internet-savvy fans will have noticed a swathe of social media videos of the actors in costume filming around London over the last few months. For example, in August, they were spotted re-creating the group’s iconic Abbey Road album cover. The original photo, taken on Aug. 8, 1969, features the Fab Four walking in single file across a crosswalk outside EMI Studios in London.
On Monday, Mendes’ long-time producing partner, co-founder of the pair’s Neal Street Productions, Pippa Harris, sat for a keynote session at the BFI London Film Festival’s Industry Forum. She provided a coy update on the rollout, currently described as a “four-film cinematic event” across the month of April.
Harris — who came from set to make her Industry Forum appearance for just an hour before heading back — said the team is currently on day 180 of the shoot. She responded later in the session when asked for more details on the distribution plan: “The idea at the moment is the films will come out in 2028, and we want people to be able to experience them in the cinema during the same period.”
She clarified: “That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re thinking that people will go and see all four films on the same day. But within the same month, you might see one a week, or you might see one on a weekend, two the next one. However you see it, I think our hope is that people will see all four films,” she continued. “They stand alone as individual stories of each of those four men, but they have a cumulative power, which I think is greater than the sum of their parts. The Beatles are, I think, the greatest band in history, and we’re trying to do our best to do them justice. Hence the four films. I don’t think there’s probably another band that you could legitimately say you wanted to see four films for,” she added.
Earlier in the session, she jokingly revealed that the cast members have been explicitly told not to talk about the top-secret movies on various red carpets. “It’s a big endeavor,” said Harris.
Also in the Beatles films, Mia McKenna-Bruce stars as Maureen Cox, the wife of Ringo Starr; Anna Sawai will be Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s wife; and Aimee Lou Wood will be Pattie Boyd, who married George Harrison. Saoirse Ronan plays Linda (Eastman) McCartney.
Prolific producer Harris is a titan of the British film and TV industry and has worked for decades on some of the most popular shows and films the country has ever produced. Among them are Hamnet, 1917 and Call the Midwife.
She went into depth about her wide-ranging career with radio presenter Edith Bowman on Monday, where she reflected on an array of iconic projects, her advice for aspiring producers in the room and why she hasn’t picked up that well-earned Oscar yet.
The 70th BFI London Film Festival runs Oct. 7-18.