Beatlemania has been given another boost with reports that some of Hollywood’s hottest stars have been cast as the fab four in Sir Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopic project.
The acclaimed filmmaker is to direct four highly-anticipated films about the Beatles, each told from the perspective of a different band member.
Fans went wild on Wednesday night when news broke that Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson and Charlie Rowe were reported to have landed the coveted parts.
The multi-movie project marks the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and the Beatles – Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ringo Starr, and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison – have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
According to The InSneider, Mescal has nabbed the part of Sir Paul, Harris Dickinson has been cast as Lennon, Barry Keoghan is to play Sir Ringo, and Charlie Rowe will appear as Harrison.
However, on Thursday, Rocketman star Rowe’s team denied the claim of his casting, telling Metro.co.uk: ‘We can confirm that this is not true.’
Metro.co.uk also understands that there are other actors still being considered for all four main parts in the Beatles biopics.
The Beatles cast: what we know so far
Charlie Rowe as George Harrison – denied
The 28-year-old British rising star, also known for playing George Osborne in ITV’s lavish 2018 adaptation of Vanity Fair, is certainly a ringer for the late Harrison.
Sadly his team has confirmed that he will not be playing the Beatles’ lead guitarist.
However, he still has major projects in the pipeline thanks to TV series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light and a star-studded upcoming Noah Baumbach film, tentatively titled Jay Kelly, where he’ll appear alongside George Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern.
Rowe first found fame as a youngster in films including The Golden Compass, The Boat That Rocked and Never Let Me Go.
As an adult, he played Ray Williams, the A&R executive that discovered Sir Elton John and paired him with Bernie Taupin, in Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton.
As for the other stars that have been rumoured, the reports are yet to be either confirmed or shut down, so we could well be getting Mescal, Keoghan and Dickinson playing three of the Yesterday, Help! and She Loves You hitmakers.
Harris Dickinson as John Lennon – rumoured
Dickinson, 27, is another young British talent with his star firmly in the ascent, who we may see as the Beatles’ singer, songwriter and mukti-instrumentalist.
After small parts on TV, including in Silent Witness, he made his film debut in 2017 American coming-of-age drama Beach Rats, where his performance was praised.
Since then, he’s taken on roles in major movies including Disney blockbuster sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, where he played Prince Phillip, as well as The King’s Man, Where the Crawdads Sing and Triangle of Sadness, which was nominated for best picture at the 2023 Oscars.
Recently he impressed alongside Zac Efron in wrestling biopic The Iron Claw, where he played a member of the Von Erich family, and as a young dad in Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper.
Next up is erotic thriller Babygirl, in which he stars opposite Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas and Sophie Wilde.
Paul Mescal as Sir Paul McCartney – rumoured
Mescal, 28, is possibly one of the most famous Irish people in pop culture right now, and part of a crop of acting talent to have come out of the Emerald Isle in recent years.
Could we be admiring him as Sir Paul, the singer, bass player and primary co-songwriter of the Beatles?
He was catapulted to fame during lockdown thanks to his starring role in Normal People, opposite Daisy Edgar Jones.
Since then, he’s been nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Aftersun and broken our hearts opposite Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers.
Alongside breaking the internet recently in photos with Natalie Portman, he will be see later this year in that very under-the-radar Sir Ridley Scott sequel, Gladiator 2.
Barry Keoghan as Sir Ringo Star – rumoured
Another Irish Oscar nominee, Keoghan, 31, has enjoyed a charmed few years recently, especially since the huge reaction to his turn in class-obsessed thriller Saltburn.
It’s said he has been lined up to portray drummer Sir Ringo, and Saltburn already proved that he’s not afraid of tackling a Liverpudlian accent.
Working steadily for over a decade in TV and film, Keoghan made people sit up and take notice in Irish TV drama Love/Hate back in 2013.
Since then, massive movies have beckoned, including a cameo as the Joker in 2022’s The Batman, but he was also busy for Marvel in Eternals, working with Yorgos Lanthimos in The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk.
He got his Academy Award nod for The Banshees of Inisherin and will next be seen in independent film Bird for Andrea Arnold, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival.
What are Sam Mendes’ The Beatles movies about?
The as-yet-unnamed movies will each be told from the individual perspectives of Sir Paul, Sir Ringo, and the late Lennon and Harrison.
That means we’ll not only get a lot of film(s) but we could even get different takes on the same situations as well as different approaches stylistically.
However, with years to span both in the group (the Beatles broke up in 1970 after over seven years together) and apart, given their childhoods and other successful musical endeavours afterwards, there is a wealth of material to cover.
This could possibly include Lennon’s tragic death in 1980 aged 40, after being gunned down by Mark David Chapman in New York City.
Harrison died of cancer in 2001 aged 58, two years after surviving a knife attack by a home intruder.
Skyfall director Sir Sam will also produce the films under his Neal Street Productions banner alongside its co-founder Dame Pippa Harris, the former chair of Bafta, and Julie Pastor.
Oscar winner Sir Sam said: ‘I’m honoured to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies.’
Having generated a lot of buzz from the announcement though, what do we actually know about the Beatles movies so far?
‘We intend this to be a uniquely thrilling, and epic cinematic experience: four films, told from four different perspectives, which tell a single story about the most celebrated band of all time,’ shared Dame Pippa as the news was announced.
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‘To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege.’
Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures’ motion picture group, added: ‘I know I speak for our CEO Tony Vinciquerra, who was instrumental in making this happen, and every Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group colleague around the world, when I say: “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”
‘Theatrical movie events today must be culturally seismic. Sam’s daring, large-scale idea is that, and then some.
‘Pairing his premier filmmaking team, with the music and the stories of four young men who changed the world, will rock audiences all over the globe.’
Possible release date for Sam Mendes’ The Beatles movies?
The films will be financed and distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures.
They are all also set to receive full cinema releases in 2027.
Although specific release dates have yet to be announced, Sony has said the dating of the releases – which will be shared closer to the time – will be ‘innovative and groundbreaking’.
It remains to be seen whether or not the releases will be staggered across days, weeks or months, or drop simultaneously – putting the idea of the Barbenheimer double bill of last summer to shame.
Past movies and TV shows about The Beatles to watch in the meantime
The Beatles have appeared in and inspired plenty of films before.
This includes A Hard Day’s Night in 1964 and 1965’s Help!
However, this is the first time the band has granted permission for their full lives to be explored, alongside their extensive back catalogue of huge hits like She Loves You, Hey Jude, Eleanor Rigby and Penny Lane.
Previous Beatles-related cinematic endeavours also include Nowhere Boy (2009), which told the stry of Lennon’s adolescence, and Yesterday, which showed the world if the Beatles had never existed.
More recently, Sir Peter Jackson’s ambitious 2021 series documentary The Beatles: Get Back used plenty of never-before-seen footage to follow the making of the Beatles’ 1970 album Let It Be.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Sony, Neal Street and reps for Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson for comment.
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