i wanna hold your hand (1978) directed by robert zemeckis
"And so, I want you to be prepared for excessive screaming, hysteria, hyperventilation, fainting, fits, seizures, spasmodic convulsions, even attempted suicides. All perfectly normal. Merely means that these youngsters are enjoying themselves."
Sam Mendes partners with Sony and Apple for Four Beatle Theatrical Movies
Today it was announced that Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes will be directing four movies about The Beatles, each one about the individual Fab Four: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Sir Paul, Sir Ringo and the estates of Lennon and Harrison have granted life rights and music rights to the scripted films. As a lifelong Beatle fanatic (I just named "Now and Then" my #1 Song of 2023 last week) this peaked my interest!
Mendes is a solid director. I was a big fan of American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Away We Go, 1917 and Empire of Light. So I'm confident he's going to do the right thing and not mess this up. There's been quite a few Beatle documentaries in recent years notably Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back. But in terms of a scripted film about The Beatles' that's been easier said than done over the years. There have been a number of TV movies about the individual Beatles, but theatrically it's been few and far between. There's been loads of films inspired by The Beatles, i.e. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Across the Universe, and Yesterday. One of the great films about Beatle-mania (not so much The Beatles themselves but the fans) was I Wanna Hold Your Hand. The best one about Lennon was Nowhere Boy, in which Aaron Johnson played Lennon as a teen. One of my favorites about The Beatles is Backbeat about their early days in Hamburg, mainly the relationship between Lennon (Ian Hart) and Stu Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorf). Paul, George and Pete Best were also portrayed in the film too, but very minor roles outside of the performances.
Bottom line: getting the life rights and music rights to The Beatles is a serious get, which is why is hasn't been done too often, done right, or they tried to do it without the music. I think if each movies is going to be each Beatles' story with their own POV of what happened that could really work, especially for a director like Mendes!
Oh and Mr. Mendes - if you need a consultant for any of these films, feel free to contact me!
I just watched I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) tonight and couldn’t stop thinking about this halfway through (AJ is a stretch but I feel confident about the others)
The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand - Performed Live On The Ed Sulliv...
youtube
From the Wikipedia article:
It was also the group's first American number-one hit, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 18 January 1964 at number 45 and starting the British Invasion of the American music industry. By 1 February, it topped the Hot 100 and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by "She Loves You". It remained on the Billboard chart for 15 weeks. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the Beatles' best-selling single worldwide, selling more than 12 million copies. In 2018, Billboard magazine named it the 48th biggest hit of all time on the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK, it was the second-highest-selling single of the 1960s, behind "She Loves You".
What Wikipedia doesn't know is that this song was integral to my act, which included this song, "She Loves You", counting to 100, or reciting the alphabet, 23rd Psalm, and/or The Lord's Prayer - the cost for each was a dollar. Requests took the form of, "Sing the Beatles, baby."
Even though his last two movies were giant ass turds that have been completely forgotten, it's still a headcanon and arguable fan theory that a lot of Robert Zemeckis movies and productions all take place in the same universe, kinda like how all of Quentin Tarantino's movies share the same universe or a couple of Robert Rodriguez's movies share the same universe as well.
• I Wanna Hold Your Hand
• Used Cars
• Romancing The Stone
• Back To The Future Trilogy
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• HBO's Tales From The Crypt (at least a few stand-out episodes)
And so, I want you to be prepared for excessive screaming, hysteria, hyperventilation, fainting, fits, seizures, spasmodic convulsions, even attempted suicides. All perfectly normal. Merely means that these youngsters are enjoying themselves.