Movie auteur Ridley Scott – while having zero to do with the project – may have just given away the ending of one of the movie industry’s current favourite plotlines: Which four hot young rising stars are being lined up to play The Beatles in Sam Mendes’ upcoming new series of biopics?
The Gladiator II director was attending a screening of the movie at a Director’s Guild of America event and taking part in a Q&A with fellow movie master Christopher Nolan. During the conversation, Scott confirmed to Nolan that his next movie would be the thriller The Dog Stars, a post-apocalyptic tale which – it’s rumoured – will see Scott once more teaming up with Gladiator II star Mescal.
When pressed by Nolan as to the presence of Mescal in The Dog Stars, Scott not only confirmed his presence but also let slip the Beatles news that’s so far only been rumoured: “Yes,” Scott replied regarding his re-teaming with Mescal, before only digging himself into a Beatles hole by changing his reply to: “Maybe… Paul is actually stacked up, doing The Beatles next. So I may have to let him go.”
With rumours already abounding of Mescal on board Sam Mendes' movies in the role of Paul McCartney, that’s pretty much all the proof we needed.
Mendes’ dramatised version of the band’s sprawling story aims to set right the record for previous The Beatles non-documentary myth-making by going in hard on the details by giving each of the fab four their own separate movie, each complete with origin story, journey to fame and fortune, battles, bust-ups and beyond.
Yup. The Beatles are the new Iron Man, Captain America, Spiderman and Hulk, it seems and the project looks like the heavyweight Beatles movie that fans – buoyed up by factual fare such as the band’s own Anthology documentary, Martin Scorsese’s Living In The Material World, and Peter Jackson’s Get Back – have been crying out for.
After all, anything’s got to be better than 1979’s mop-topped Birth of The Beatles…
While Mendes is confirmed as being on the job: “I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies,” Mendes said in a statement back in February, Mescal isn’t as yet so forthcoming.
When grilled on the project, Mescal told Entertainment Tonight that: “It would be an incredible story to be attached to. The fact that Sam Mendes is attached to direct, like truly, it would be a dream come true.” But when asked more directly if the role was in the bag, Mescal replied, “No, no, no – we’re not going there.”
And there’s more hot Beatles unmasking afoot.
News of Mescal’s anointment comes hot on the heels of Ringo Starr himself accidentally (apparently) revealing that Saltburn heartthrob (and ex-Sabrina Carpenter beau) Barry Keoghan will be playing him as part of the movie series.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, drummer Starr gave Keoghan his endorsement when pressed. “Well, I think it’s great, and I believe he’s somewhere taking drum lessons,” Starr confirmed, before joking. “I hope not too many.”
