Tom Rothman, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, doesn’t have a reputation for taking chances as a film executive. In many ways, that’s partially unfair. While at 20th Century Fox, he was part of the team that greenlit James Cameron’s “Titanic” and “Avatar” endeavors, which could have been financial disasters, and allowed Searchlight to acquire a movie Warner Bros. wanted no part of, a little Best Picture winner known as “Slumdog Millionaire.” But Rothman’s tenure at Sony Pictures can be summed up almost exclusively as “safe” choices. At CinemaCon, Rothman brought out director Sam Mendes to introduce perhaps his biggest gamble, four, yes, four movies about “The Beatles.”
But wait, there’s more.
Not only will each movie be told from the prospective of each member of the legendary rock n ‘ roll band, but each movie will arrive in theaters in April of 2028. Yes, all four will release that month. As Mendes put it on stage in front of the world’s theater owners, it’s the first “bingeable event in theaters.” And Mendes, Rothman, and Sony also had quite the surprise as they introduced the actors playing the band in person.
First out was Paul Mescal, portraying Paul McCartney, then Joseph Quinn, who will play George Harrison, Barry Keoghan set to portray Ringo Starr, and, last but not least, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon. The cast is a Vanity Fair cover dream come true, and already the hottest bunch of stars Sony has had in one movie in at least a decade.
The film is a Neal Street production in association with Apple Corps, the holding company for The Beatles. It is the first Beatles biopic with expressed approval from Apple Corps, which is still run by McCartney, Starr, and the descendants of Harrison and Lennon.
During the presentation, Mendes revealed that filming will take a year and should begin in 2026.
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