CinemaCon unveils the cast for Sam Mendes' The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event
Gill Pringle
STACK Writer
It was about as rock’n’roll as you can get - without having any actual rock stars present. The moment when Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan, and Harris Dickinson graced the stage at CinemaCon - for the first time as the newly-crowned Fab Four.
And when director Sam Mendes announced his plans for not one - but four - Beatles movies, it wasn't lost on the audience of cinema operators that the new Fab Four were standing on the same stage graced by the likes of other musical icons such as Elton John, Adele, and Rod Stewart.
Dressed all in black, the foursome looked every inch like rock stars, receiving an ecstatic roar of response at the annual gathering of cinema owners, previously known as NATO (the National Association of Theatre Owners) but now rebranded as Cinema United, given how its acronym led to endless confusion, mistaken for the “other” NATO, as in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
The four actors appeared briefly on stage dressed in all black and bowed in unison, a hallmark of Beatles performances.
While Mendes wouldn’t confirm which order the movies would roll out, he also mentioned it would take him more than a year to shoot all four movies, prompting Sony boss Tom Rothman to quip, “I’m getting Avatar flashbacks”.
All four movies, collectively titled - The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event - will be released “in proximity" to each other in cinemas starting in April 2028, in what will be the first “bingeable moment in cinema,” according to Rothman.
Co-stars on Gladiator II, Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney to Joseph Quinn’s George Harrison, while Barry Keoghan will portray Ringo Starr, and Harris Dickinson will be John Lennon.
While the groundbreaking British band's rise to fame has been well-chronicled, Mendes promises the films will be full of surprises. “I can assure you there is still plenty left to explore," Mendes told the audience.
"Frankly, we need big cinematic events to get people out of the house," added the Oscar-winning director of American Beauty.
All of Us Strangers star Mescal was Oscar-nominated for his role in Aftersun, while Keoghan received an Oscar nod for The Banshees of Inisherin.
Already something of a heartthrob, Dickinson gathered more fans after his sexy performance in Babygirl, where he made Nicole Kidman’s character get down on her hands and knees to drink milk from a saucer.
Ringo Starr has already expressed his enthusiasm for the project, noting how Keoghan is already vigorously practising the drums. “I’m excited that [Mendes] has taken the madness of making four movies at the same time.
"My life as a lad, John's life, Paul's life, George's life, I mean, it must interact in some way," adds the drummer.
Catch up with Sam Mendes
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