Peter Jackson’s 6-hour Disney+ documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back” was a revelation for fans of The Beatles. Jackson made the doc over four years culling through 130 hours of audio and 57 hours of video left over from Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 band break-up doc “Let It Be.” The result? A dream for any Beatles fans, and five Emmy nominations for Jackson, including Outstanding Documentary and Director.
But Jackson’s time covering The Beatles may not be over just yet. Deadline reports that the director has another film project on the band in mind, and it’d involve the band’s surviving members, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. “I’m talking to The Beatles about another project, something very, very different than “Get Back,”” Jackson said. “We’re seeing what the possibilities are, but it’s another project with them. It’s not really a documentary … and that’s all I can really say.” If it’s not another documentary, what is it? If Jackson’s recent video work for McCartney is any indication, the answer may be a reunion of sorts.
During his work on “Get Back,” Jackson had the idea to separate John Lennon’s vocal tracks on “I’ve Got A Feeling” from leftover footage of The Beatles’ infamous final rooftop concert and edit it so McCartney could sing along with it on stage. After months of not asking McCartney about the idea, afraid he’d find Jackson another obnoxious fanboy, the director reached out to the musician about the footage he had. McCartney thought it was a splendid idea and used Jackson’s edited footage of Lennon on his 2022 tour.
So, to speculate: could Jackson have something in a similar vein in mind for his next Beatles project? Starr and McCartney are still alive and well, and perhaps with all of Lindsay-Hogg’s leftover footage, Jackson could splice things together to create a reunion concert film. All four members of The Beatles on stage again decades after the deaths of Lennon and George Harrison? With today’s technology and Jackson’s verve and know-how, it’s entirely plausible.
But Jackson has plenty of other coals in the oven, too. Since he wrapped up the last film of his “The Hobbit” trilogy nearly a decade ago, Jackson’s worked exclusively on documentaries, but a return to live-action isn’t out of the question. However, one of his ideas for a new big narrative film involves cutting-edge technology that isn’t ready to go yet. “One of them could be big scale, but it’s so technically complicated I’m trying to work how exactly I’ll do it,” Jackson said. “It’s a live-action movie, but it needs technology that doesn’t quite exist at the moment, so we’re in the middle of developing the technology to allow it to happen. I’m trying to anticipate what I might be able to do, before it even exists.” Will this movie be in the same vein as his “Lord Of The Rings” movies? “They’re not fantasy epics, but they’re pretty interesting,” said Jackson.
So, if Jackson’s idea for another project with The Beatles falls through, maybe he’ll do another massively-scaled blockbuster. To be fair to Jackson, both “The Beatles: Get Back” and his previous WWI documentary, “Thou Shall Not Grow Old,” are intriguing if imperfect docs. It’d be nice to see him continue to explore the documentary form further, but given how much people loved “Get Back,” maybe another Beatles project is the right call.
Check out footage of Paul McCartney singing along with Jackson’s edited footage of John Lennon below.
