Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle‘s “Yesterday,” a sci-fi romantic comedy about a world where no one remembers The Beatles, was a hit when it came out in theaters last year, but many critics noted that the film never lived up to its initial concept. It turns out the original script that became “Yesterday” was a darker and much better film, that is until Curtis came along, changed it and then took all the credit for the story.
In an interview with Uproxx, screenwriter Jack Barth talks about his original script, titled “Cover Version,” and the difference in tone it had from the final product. As Barth puts it, the original story was about the struggles of a singer-songwriter who, despite being the only person who remembers the Beatles and was passing their songs as his own, never becomes as famous or rich as the Beatles. “I wrote it from my point of view,” Barth says. “Which was, I was lying in bed one night thinking, if Star Wars hadn’t been made and I just came up with the idea for Star Wars, I bet I wouldn’t be able to sell it. Carry that on to the Beatles, if I knew all the Beatles songs, I bet I couldn’t be successful with it.”
Unfortunately for Barth, when he sold the script to Working Title Films, they hired Richard Curtis, who then negotiated to get sole screenwriting credit on “Yesterday.” Barth ended up with only a co-‘story by’ credit that he’d share with Curtis, then things got worse. As the film’s release drew closer, Barth realized that a lot of specifics from his original script did make it to the final movie, but Curtis was minimizing Barth’s contributions in interview after interview. “I didn’t realise Richard was going to do this to me until the week that the film was released,” he said. “Then all the publicity hit all at once and I could see that he was taking credit for everything. I think I could have done something then but I didn’t want to jeopardise the film. I got lawyers to contact Richard’s lawyers and they just dragged it out.”
Curtis repeatedly referred to Barth’s script as a “one-sentence” description, or a “one lined thesis” despite his script keeping much of the same plot points as Barth’s original, including the film’s final gag about people not remembering “Harry Potter,” which Curtis credited to Sarah Silverman.
READ MORE: Cameron Crowe Talks About How Tom Cruise Shut Down Times Square For ‘Vanilla Sky’
As for the tone of the two scripts, the main difference Barth points out is that his version was more of a meditation of integrity, validation, and creative compromise, where Curtis’ version kept most of the focus on a romantic plot about a childhood crush. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot,” Barth says. “And I think that the reason that Richard turned him into the most successful songwriter of all time is because that’s how Richard’s life is going. He met Rowan Atkinson at Oxford, he came out of Oxford and immediately rode Rowan Atkinson to huge success in his early twenties, he’s never been knocked out, as far as I know. Why wouldn’t this guy become the most successful songwriter in the world?”
Barth says he hasn’t even been able to use the film to get new opportunities, because Curtis essentially erased his contributions. “This is why I’m so upset,” he added. “This is why I actually feel like Richard has damaged me financially. I write and say, ‘I’m the guy who created the film Yesterday,’ and they look and they go, ‘No, you’re not, that’s a Richard Curtis movie, you moron.'”
You can actually check out Jack Barth’s original script for “Cover Version” now, as he’s posted it on Twitter.
