Peter Jackson to develop “very different” Beatles film with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr

Peter Jackson has announced that he’s working on a “very different” Beatles-related project.

In an interview with Deadline, The Lord Of The Rings director revealed that he’s in talks with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to develop a new film. Jackson last worked with the pair on the Emmy-nominated documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, which was released in November of last year.

READ MORE: The Beatles: Get Back review: Peter Jackson’s long and winding but utterly unmissable epic

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“I’m talking to The Beatles about another project, something very, very different than Get Back,” he said.

“We’re seeing what the possibilities are, but it’s another project with them. It’s not really a documentary… and that’s all I can really say… We are never in a position where we have to do anything, but we’ve got a few things percolating.”

While Jackson wasn’t able to share too many details, he did suggest that his vision for the project will require technology to improve.

“It’s so technically complicated I’m trying to work how exactly I’ll do it,” he said. “It’s a live-action movie, but it needs technology that doesn’t quite exist at the moment, so we’re in the middle of developing the technology to allow it to happen.

“I’m trying to anticipate what I might be able to do, before it even exists. They’re not fantasy epics, but they’re pretty interesting.”

The Beatles
The Beatles at work in Twickenham Studios, January 1969. CREDIT: Disney

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Released in three parts, The Beatles: Get Back featured digitally restored footage of the band from 1969, as they worked against a tight deadline to record 14 new songs. This would become their final studio album, ‘Let It Be’.

On piecing the series together, Jackson explained: “In a way, my idea of heaven is to take footage from someone else, and Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot amazing footage.

“It wasn’t as intense as making three Lord of the Rings back to back, but it was four years with a pandemic in the middle of it all.”

In November last year, Jackson defended Get Back‘s lengthy runtime, suggesting it may have taken “another 50 years” to uncover anything he didn’t include in the film.