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Artist News
Peter Jackson to direct new Beatles documentary
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 31 January 2019
Having had a go on Ron Howard for 2016 tour documentary ‘Eight Days A Week’, The Beatles are going to take another Hollywood director out for a spin. Peter Jackson will oversee a new film about the recording of the band’s ‘Let It Be’ album.
Although still best known for the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ films, Jackson is – of course – now a top documentary director too, having made last year’s lauded World War One film ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’.
Jackson will create his Beatles film using 55 hours of footage of the band in the studio in January 1969, recording sessions that culminated in their legendary performance on the roof of Apple Corp’s Savile Row office. The album they created was then released eighteen months later, after the band had split up.
“The 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to us, ensures this movie will be the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about”, says Jackson. “It’s like a time machine transports us back to 1969, and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together”.
Four friends, you say? Were they not all at each other’s throats by then? No, says Jackson: “I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth. After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot eighteen months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove”.
“Sure, there’s moments of drama”, he admits. “But none of the discord this project has long been associated with. Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating – it’s funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate. I’m THRILLED and honoured to have been entrusted with this remarkable footage – making the movie will be a sheer joy”.
As noted by Jackson, the footage he is working from was originally shot by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who also made a film from it. A restored version of that is also set for release alongside this new one.
As of now though, Jackson’s film has no title and no release date, so it’s a waiting game all round. Why don’t we use this time to decide who should direct the next Beatles doc. I vote Michael Bay.
