Director Jean-Marc Vallée has been focused more on TV – albeit the cinematic likes of Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects rather than Coronation Street – of late, but he's leaping back into films with an enticing new drama. He'll handle an untitled film about John Lennon and Yoko Ono's relationship.
Universal has snapped up a package from producer Michael De Luca that includes a script by Darkest Hour writer Anthony McCarten. It'll chart how Ono and Lennon first met in the late ’60s, when she was an up-and-coming artist and he was one of the biggest music stars in the world. She became indelibly linked with Lennon as he transitioned from the Beatles breakup to a soaring solo career. Together they became provocative advocates for peace and activists against the Vietnam War. After a brief separation in the mid-1970s, they again became constant companions until his 1980 murder in New York. She remains the gatekeeper of his music and legacy.
And she will, perhaps unsurprisingly, be involved here, acting as a producer and helping secure the rights to Lennon's iconic music. "We’ll have to make a deal for the music, but with Yoko producing with us, we’ll have access to the estate and the library of songs," producer De Luca tells Deadline. "I’ve been listening to John’s songs forever, but as we developed the movie, I became aware of just how profound is the emotional impact of the music and their legacy is on me."
The next big step, of course, will be finding people to play the central pair, and whether the film can portray events honestly given the participation of one of the subjects...
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