New Beatles-inspired comedy fantasy Yesterday is in cinemas soon and it sees an unlikely pairing behind the camera - Trainspotting director Danny Boyle and Love Actually and Notting Hill writer Richard Curtis.
Watch our interview with Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis
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Chalk and cheese, crack dens and posh bookshops, anyone? In fact, these guys might just be the Lennon and McCartney of movie-making.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Boyle said, "I don't know about Lennon and McCartney - I think we’re more the Cannon and Ball of film making."
"If you look at all our films we're both obsessed with putting music into but not just to make a scene work; it’s literally almost the reason for the scene." - Danny Boyle
Curtis added, "I always thought Four Weddings was the basic inspiration for Trainspotting. I always worried about that because it's a bunch of friends, very close, watching the years go by..."
Yesterday sees a failing singer-songwriter, played by former EastEnders actor Himesh Patel, wake up after a freak accident with two missing front teeth but also with something very strange - he is now the only person in the world who remembers The Beatles.
It's an intriguing premise but Boyle, who memorably adapted Irvine Welsh’s novel about heroin addiction in Edinburgh, and Curtis, the king of touchy-feelgood love stories, do seem to be very different as film makers.
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"In one sense, yes but there is also something that connects us very much," says Boyle. "I think we’re like specialists in it and that’s music. If you look at all our films we’re both obsessed with putting music into but not just to make a scene work; it’s literally almost the reason for the scene.
"As important as the scene itself is the tune that’s playing and people’s lives, these characters are associated with the song and to be able to work on a movie about The Beatles is a wonderful privilege."
So who is the bigger Beatles obsessive - Curtis or Boyle? "I think I am slightly," says Curtis. "I celebrated my birthday by listening to Beatles all day. But I do know people who are four times more obsessed than me. I’ve never found a Beatles book that was long enough, it never goes into enough detail for me."
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Yesterday is in cinemas on June 28
