It seems director Peter Jackson has got the documentary bug. Fresh from last year’s exemplary WWI doc They Shall Not Grow Old, restoring and colourising hours of archival footage, he’s now about to set to work on a new project – a film about The Beatles. Jackson will be working with 55 hours of previously-unseen footage and 140 hours of audio, captured in January 1969 during the making of Let It Be, which the filmmaker claims will make for “the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience”.
While the recording of Let It Be came at a tumultuous time in the band’s career – it was their final album, released in 1970 shortly after their break-up, though it was recorded before 1969’s Abbey Road – Jackson claims that the studio footage tells a different story of the album’s creation. “I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth,” he said. “It’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there’s moments of drama – but none of the discord this project has long been associated with. Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating - it’s funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate.”
The film’s announcement today comes exactly 50 years on from The Beatles’ legendary final gig, playing on top of the Apple Corps label office in Savile Row, London. There’s no official title or release date yet – but the film’s long and winding road to fruition is now underway.
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