Sony Pictures has announced additional casting for ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’ from director Sam Mendes.
Saoirse Ronan, Anna Sawai, Aimee Lou Wood and Mia McKenna-Bruce will play, respectively, Linda McCartney, Yoko Ono, Pattie Boyd and Maureen Starkey – each of whom married one member of the Fab Four at the height of the band’s fame in the 60s.
Mendes said in a statement: “Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures in their own right — and I’m thrilled that we’ve managed to persuade four of the most talented women working in film today to join this amazing adventure.”
- Linda Eastman met McCartney in 1967 while working as a photographer, and the couple were married in 1969. After the Beatles broke up, Linda was a member of McCartney’s band, Wings, and they remained together until her death from breast cancer in 1998.
- Ono and Lennon first met in 1966, while Lennon was still married to Cynthia Powell Lennon. They divorced in 1968, and Lennon and Ono married the next year.
- Boyd was working as a model when she met Harrison on the set of the Beatles’ 1964 film “A Hard Day’s Night.” The couple were married in 1966, and divorced in 1977. (Boyd famously went on to marry Eric Clapton from 1979-1989.)
- Maureen Cox began dating Starr (real name is Richard Starkey) in 1962. They were married in 1965, and had three children together before divorcing in 1975. Maureen Starkey died from leukemia in 1994.
The filmmakers previously announced the casting for the Fab Four: Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. The project has yet announce who will portray Cynthia Lennon, Brian Epstein, George Martin, Ravi Shankar and other key roles.
The four Beatles films will each take the perspective of one member of the Beatles as they climb from unknowns from Liverpool in the early 1960s to the biggest band in the world before their breakup in 1970. It’s the first time that the remaining band members and/or their families have given the music rights to theatrical feature films about them.
‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’ is set for theatrical release in April 2028.
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