EXCLUSIVE: After officially announcing the cast for their incredible endeavor at CinemaCon in March, Sam Mendes and Sony Pictures have now landed the writers that will help spearhead The Beatles-A Four Film Cinematic Event. Sources tell Deadline that Tony Award winner Jez Butterworth, Academy Award winner Peter Straughan and BAFTA and Tony Award winner Jack Thorne are set to write the screenplays for Sony Pictures, Sam Mendes, and Neal Street Productions’ biopics of The Beatles, whose stories will be told with four distinct theatrical feature films.
It is unknown at this time if each will be writing their own film or if all three will be collaborating on all four films.
The films mark the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film. As conceived by Mendes, who will direct the four theatrical feature films – one from each band member’s point-of-view – will intersect to tell the astonishing story of the greatest band in history.
The four films will star Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. The cast was recently revealed as part of the Sony showcase at this years CinemaCon in Las Vegas.
Sony Pictures will finance and distribute worldwide with full theatrical windows in April 2028. The Beatles—A Four-Film Cinematic Event is a Neal Street production in association with Apple Corps for Sony Pictures. Mendes is producing alongside his Neal Street Productions partner Pippa Harris and Neal Street’s Julie Pastor. Alexandra Derbyshire (Wonka) is also producing.
Butterworth’s recent screenwriting credits include James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. His other screenwriting credits include Spectre, Black Mass, and Edge of Tomorrow. Butterworth is also an award-winning playwright who wrote The Ferryman for which he won the Tony for Best Play, and most recently, The Hills of California, which just received seven Tony nominations including for Best Play. Both plays were directed by Sam Mendes.
Straughan most recently won the Academy Award® for his screenplay for Edward Berger’s thriller Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini. He previously co-wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with his late wife, Bridget O’Connor. The screenplay earned them an Academy Award® nomination and won the BAFTA for Adapted Screenplay. His other film credits include The Goldfinch, Our Brand is Crisis, and Frank. For television, Straughan adapted Hilary Mantel’s bestselling novel Wolf Hall, which won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series. He also wrote its sequel, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
Thorne is a BAFTA and Tony Award-winning screenwriter and theatre writer. His recent hit series Adolescence has garnered widespread acclaim.His film credits include The Swimmers, Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Sam Claflin, The Aeronauts, starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne, and Wonder, starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson. His otherTV credits include Toxic Town, His Dark Materials, Help, and Best Interests. On the theater side, Thorne wrote the Tony and Olivier Award-winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and most recently The Motive and the Cue, directed by Sam Mendes.
Butterworth is repped by CAA and Alan Wertheimer at Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Straughan is repped by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates and CAA. Thorne is repped by UTA, Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. The InSneider newsletter was first to report Thorne as a writer.
The post Jez Butterworth, Jack Thorne And Peter Straughan To Pen ‘The Beatles-A Four Film Cinematic Event’ For Sam Mendes And Sony appeared first on Deadline.
