After the breakup of The Beatles, Paul McCartney didn’t fade quietly into legend — he reinvented himself. The first trailer for “Man on the Run,” from Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” “20 Feet From Stardom”), offers an intimate look at McCartney’s creative rebirth during the turbulent years that followed the band’s dissolution, when he formed Wings with his wife, Linda McCartney, and faced the challenge of building a new identity outside the world’s most famous group.
“Man on the Run” charts this transformative period with unprecedented access to unseen footage and rare archival materials, tracing McCartney’s evolution from cultural burnout to artistic resurgence. The documentary frames the musician not as an untouchable icon but as an artist rediscovering his purpose, creating new music to define a new decade.
For decades, McCartney’s post-Beatles work has been criminally underrated — overshadowed by John Lennon’s solo mythos and, to a lesser extent, George Harrison’s astonishing debut All Things Must Pass. Yet McCartney’s 1970s output, from the scrappy experimentalism of McCartney and Ram to the pop craftsmanship of Band on the Run and Venus and Mars, remains some of the most adventurous, melodically rich music of his career. “Man on the Run” aims to reframe that period not as a decline from Beatlemania but as one of the most quietly radical reinventions in modern pop history.
Presented by Amazon MGM Studios and produced by Tremolo in association with MPL and Polygram Entertainment, “Man on the Run” is both a music documentary and a creative resurrection story. Producers include Neville, Chloe Simmons, and Meghan Walsh for Tremolo; Scott Rodger and Ben Chappell for MPL; and Michele Anthony and David Blackman for Polygram. Executive producers are Caitrin Rogers and McCartney himself.
The film also serves as the centerpiece of a sweeping new partnership among McCartney, Universal Music Group, and Amazon, which will unfold throughout the year. Alongside the documentary’s release, fans can expect exclusive new music, limited-edition merchandise drops with Amazon Music, and a range of special features — including McCartney’s personal commentary and archival materials.
The campaign coincides with a slate of companion projects: McCartney’s book Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run arrives November 4 on Amazon and Audible; the definitive “WINGS” collection lands on streaming and vinyl November 7; and his Got Back tour returns across North America this autumn.
“Man on the Run” will open in select theaters before streaming globally on Prime Video on February 25 in more than 240 countries and territories.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
