Four Beatles movies out in 2028: See who's cast to play music legends
Get ready for Beatlemania at the movies. A four-film cinematic event was announced for April 2028 to be "the first binge-able theatrical experience."
www.usatoday.com
Four Beatles movies out in 2028: See who's cast to play music legends
Brian TruittUSA TODAY
LAS VEGAS – A new Fab Four has arrived.
Monday night at CinemaCon, the annual convention for theater owners and studios, Sony Pictures finally spilled details about its ambitious four-movie "The Beatles" event. And because it involves what director Sam Mendes considers "the most significant band of all time," he brought out his entire supergroup of actors, Avengers style, starring in these intersecting music biopics: Paul Mescal is playing Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn inherits the guitar of George Harrison, Barry Keoghan will be drumming as Ringo Starr, and Harris Dickinson has been cast as John Lennon.
"The Beatles changed my understanding of music. Pretty much, they made up my first memories," Mendes said. He revealed that all four films – which will be in production for over a year – will come out in April 2028, calling it "the first binge-able theatrical experience."
Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
The filmmaker added that the quadrilogy will be told from the perspectives of "four different human beings," characters and events will cross over between the movies, and "seeing all four films in proximity tells the story in a unique way."
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
The Beatles biopics were first announced in February of last year, with McCartney, Starr and the families of the late John Lennon and George Harrison all signing off on the project through the band's Apple Corps. Ltd. (Sony Music Publishing, by the way, controls the rights to the majority of Beatles songs.)
The Beatles and movies go way back, appearing in five movies themselves between 1964 and 1970, including "A Hard Day's Night" and the animated "Yellow Submarine." There have been a few attempts at the biopic treatment, from the 1994 indie drama "Backbeat" – which centered on Lennon’s relationship with Stuart Sutcliffe before the Beatles were superstars – to 2009's "Nowhere Boy" with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a teenage Lennon. And then there are the many documentaries over the years, including Peter Jackson's "The Beatles: Get Back" in 2021 and "Beatles '64" last year.
Mendes allowed that, while a lot of the Beatles story has been told, "I can assure you there is still plenty left to explore.
"The music will be astonishing and I promise you it’ll be worth the trip."
