This is the most prominent entertainment news in recent days. An image has gone viral that corresponds to the monumental biopic project of The Beatles, directed by Sam Mendes, showing actors Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal,Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan recreating the quartet’s crossing at the Abbey Road zebra crossing, which was the cover of the famous 1969 album.
This is the photograph that Iain Macmillan took at 11:35 a.m. on August 8, 1969. He only had 10 minutes to take the shots while standing on a small platform, as a police officer stopped traffic. Initially, the group had sketched the idea of naming the album Everest, in honor of the cigarette brand smoked by the recording engineer, Geoff Emerick, even traveling to the Himalayas for the cover photo. But days passed and the idea of the trip began to be discarded.
In his autobiography The Sound of the Beatles (Indicios, 2011), engineer Geoff Emerick notes that the idea to name the album after the EMI studios – located on the mentioned street – was Ringo’s. “To hell with it, let’s go outside and call it Abbey Road.”
Emerick himself recounts in the cited book how the photo was taken. “It was simply because they were not willing to travel together beyond the door. And so on a hot August morning, the day after finishing The End, the Beatles dressed up (John in his white suit, George Harrison in denim clothes, Paul barefoot) and went out to the street, where they crossed the Abbey Road zebra crossing several times while a photographer took a dozen snapshots.”
“The police blocked the crossing on both sides of the street for a few minutes so the group members didn’t have to worry about being hit by any cars, and there were barely a handful of fans present, because in recent years the Beatles had rarely appeared at the studio before mid-afternoon. Because of all this, the photo session was very quick, and everyone found themselves with several hours to kill before the scheduled start of recording. George Harrison and Mal killed time at the nearby London Zoo, while Ringo went shopping. Paul invited John to his house for tea, and perhaps a friendly chat.”
Returning to the British filmmaker’s movie, this filming is part of a series of scenes that Mendes is shooting during August precisely at Abbey Road, the studio where the Liverpool band recorded much of their discography. According to the portal Deadline, 80 extras and several period vehicles have been used. In fact, last week, local residents and business owners around Abbey Road received a letter from Sony informing them of the preparations for the feature film.
Strictly speaking, the project is called The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event. A series of four biographical films, directed by Sam Mendes and produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Neal Street Productions and Apple Corps, based on the life and career of The Beatles. The twist is that each of the films tells the story of the group from the perspective of its four members. That is: one film about John Lennon, one about Paul McCartney, one about George Harrison and another about Ringo Starr.
The breakdown of the main actors and their roles portraying the Fab Four is as follows: Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon.
The project has full authorization and support from Apple Corps and the surviving members and heirs of the band. Mendes has entrusted a team of screenwriters to write the films: the award-winning British Jez Butterworth (playwright winner of Olivier and Tony awards), Peter Straughan (Oscar winner for the screenplay of Conclave), and Jack Thorne (winner of Olivier and Tony awards).
“The Beatles changed my way of understanding music,” Mendes said before the audience at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. “I have been trying for years to make a film about them.” The Oscar winner added that the story was “too big for a single film” and that it didn’t work as a TV series, and added: “Maybe this is an opportunity to understand them a little more deeply.”
In fact, the filmmaker has met with the surviving Beatles. For example, in 2025 he met with Ringo Starr. The drummer, upon seeing the script, asked him to make some changes. “I had a writer — very good, with a great reputation — and he wrote it brilliantly, but it had nothing to do with Maureen or me,” Starr said. “We weren’t like that. I said: ‘We would never do that.’”
And although he said he is more satisfied with how the script represents him, he says he is not sure how Mendes will shoot four films at once. “But he will do what he is doing,” Starr concluded, “and I will send him peace and love.”
Besides the Beatles’ starring roles, others have been confirmed, for example, James Norton was chosen as Brian Epstein, the manager who brought the group to fame. Also, it is already known who will play their wives: Saoirse Ronan, who plays Linda McCartney; Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono; Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd; and Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey.
Other supporting roles have also been confirmed: Morfydd Clark, the actress of Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings, will play Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon’s first wife and Julian’s mother; Harry Lawtey will portray Stuart Sutcliffe, “the fifth Beatle” who left the group in 1961 to dedicate himself to painting; Farhan Akhtar will bring to life Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitarist who influenced George Harrison; and Lucy Boynton will embody Jane Asher, the actress who was Paul McCartney’s girlfriend for many years, said to have inspired the creation of several of the band’s songs.
The official release date for the four Beatles titles is confirmed: April 2028. Now we just have to wait.
