Weeks after
The top four actors in the main roles
of
Sam Mendes’s upcoming Beatles movies have been revealed.
, it has been reported that the Oscar-winning director has secured three writers to join the production.
Acclaimed British author Jez Butterworth
Edge of Tomorrow
), Peter Straughan (
Conclave
) and Jack Thorne (
Adolescence
It will join the four biographical movies slated for release in April 2028.
Thorne might be best known for his popular Netflix show.
Adolescence
,
which he co-created with
Stephen Graham.
When it was released on Netflix earlier this year, the show ignited worldwide discussions about the risks associated with social media for younger audiences and secured a spot as the number one most-viewed English series in Netflix history. Thorne has additionally penned screenplays for several movies.
Enola Holmes
and
The Swimmers.
In television, he has collaborated with director Shane Meadows for the 2010 drama miniseries.
This Is England
And regarding the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s popular young readers’ series
His Dark Materials
The award-winning playwright, honored with an Olivier Award, was also the writer of
Harry Potter And The Cursed Child
(2016), and more recently, the National Theatre’s
The Intent and the Signal
(2023), which was directed by Mendes.
Academy Award winner Straughan will also be joining as a screenwriter, having just won Best Adapted Screenplay for Edward Berger’s Vatican thriller
Conclave
,
featuring Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgoe,
Stanley Tucci
And starring Isabella Rossellini. This Academy Award-winning film delves into the hidden and enigmatic ceremonies surrounding the selection of a new Pope.
For television, Straughan adapted Hilary Mantel’s best-selling novel.
Wolf Hall.
The show featured Damian Lewis and received numerous award nominations, winning the BAFTA for Best Drama Series in 2016. Additionally, he penned its follow-up series.
Wolf Hall: Reflections and Illumination.
Butterworth is an accolade-winning dramatist who penned the 2017 theatrical work.
The Ferryman,
For which he won the Tony Award for Best Play. He went on to write subsequently.
The Hills of California
, which just received seven Tony nominations, including for best play (both were directed by Mendes).
For screen, Butterworth has written the scripts for James Mangold’s
Ford v Ferrari
(2019), the James Bond film
Spectre
(2015), and
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
(2023).
The Beatles series will include
four separate films,
Each one concentrating on a distinct individual within the team, and features
Paul Mescal
as Paul McCartney,
Joseph Quinn
as George Harrison,
Barry Keoghan
as Ringo Starr, and
Harris Dickinson
as John Lennon.
Mendes, the director behind films such as
Skyfall
, has been developing this unique take on the Fab Four for years, claiming that it “was too big for one film”. In creating four films, he has stated that he wishes to create the “first binge-able theatrical experience”.
This is the first time Apple, the Beatles’s record company and the two living band members, McCartney and Starr, have granted the rights to their stories and music for a scripted film.
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