The Beatles cinematic universe is real. Last year, big-deal director Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for American Beauty and then made two of the Daniel Craig James Bond movies, announced plans to direct four different Beatles biopics, one for each Beatle. In December, the cast of those Beatles biopics was reportedly confirmed: Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan and Ringo Starr, and new arrival Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. On Monday night, Mendes made a surprise appearance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, introducing those four stars and announcing that all four Beatles films will arrive in April 2028.
The Beatles - A Four-Film Cinematic Event, directed by Sam Mendes.
Harris Dickinson (John Lennon)
Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney)
Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr)
Joseph Quinn (George Harrison)In theatres April 2028. #TheBeatlesFourFilmCinematicEvent pic.twitter.com/mREL0nPcfC
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) April 1, 2025
As Deadline reports, Sam Mendes told the CinemaCon audience that this one-month spree of four films will be the first "bingeable moment in cinema" -- words that apparently came from Sony Pictures head Tom Rothman, who was also there for the announcement. Mendes plans to shoot all four movies simultaneously, a process that'll take more than a year. To that, Rothman said that he's "getting Avatar flashbacks."
Are they serious with this? Four pictures in one month? How do they think people go to the movies anyway? Does anyone devote the better part of a weekend day to seeing one movie and say that they can't wait to see another picture about the same people one week later? Last year, Kevin Costner tried to open his first two Horizon films a few months apart, and we're still waiting on the second one. But Costner largely funded those pictures on his own, and Sony is obviously investing a gigantic chunk of change into these Beatles flicks. I'll probably go see all four, but this is my job. Will regular people want to do this? I guess we'll find out.
At CinemaCon, Mendes said that he was trying to figure out how to make a Beatles biopic before deciding that the story was too big for a single film but that he didn't think a TV series was the right way to do it, either: "There had to be a way to tell the epic story for a new generation... I can assure you there is still plenty left to explore, and I think we found a way to do that." The logline for all four movies is this: "Each man has his own story, but together they are legendary."
When the four actors came out onstage, they reportedly said, "It’s wonderful to be here, it’s certainly a thrill, you’re such a lovely audience, we’d like to take you home with us." You see what they did there. The combined forces of white-guy handsomeness in those photos is admittedly very powerful, and I suppose that was always key to the Beatles' appeal in the first place.
Sam Mendes will co-produce these movies with Pippa Harris, Julie Pastor, and Alexandra Derbyshire. We still don't know the titles, and Mendes hasn't specified the order of the four films.
