Director Peter Jackson's Beatles film will hit cinemas in September and features never-before-seen footage of the band's Let It Be recording sessions along with their entire 42-minute rooftop concert.
Walt Disney Studios has acquired the worldwide distribution rights to Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back, which was first announced in January 2019.
The eagerly-anticipated film tracks the making of the band’s 1970 studio album Let It Be along with their final live concert as a group, the legendary rooftop performance at London’s Savile Row.
"No band has had the kind of impact on the world that The Beatles have had, and The Beatles: Get Back is a front-row seat to the inner workings of these genius creators at a seminal moment in music history, with spectacularly restored footage that looks like it was shot yesterday," said Robert A. Iger, Executive Chairman of The Walt Disney Company.
"I’m a huge fan myself, so I could not be happier that Disney is able to share Peter Jackson’s stunning documentary with global audiences in September."
Jackson is chiefly known as director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and this foray into music documentary should be fascinating. For his new film, he drew on over 55 hours of unseen footage, filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969.
140 hours of mostly unheard audio recordings from the Let It Be album sessions were also listened back to.
"Working on this project has been a joyous discovery," Jackson said. "I’ve been privileged to be a fly on the wall while the greatest band of all time works, plays and creates masterpieces."
"I am really happy that Peter has delved into our archives to make a film that shows the truth about The Beatles recording together," said Paul McCartney. "The friendship and love between us comes over and reminds me of what a crazily beautiful time we had."
"I'm really looking forward to this film," said Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. "Peter is great and it was so cool looking at all this footage.
"There was hours and hours of us just laughing and playing music, not at all like the version that came out. There was a lot of joy and I think Peter will show that. I think this version will be a lot more peace and loving, like we really were."
The original Let It Be film, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and the accompanying album were filmed and recorded in January and April 1969. They were not released until May 1970, three weeks after The Beatles had disbanded.
Shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm, the original 80-minute Let It Be movie was built around the three weeks of filming, including an edited version of the rooftop concert. The Grammy-winning album topped the charts in the US and the UK.
Shot on January 30, 1969, The Beatles’ rooftop concert marked the band’s first live performance in over two years and their final live set together. It features mildly hilarious attempts to stop the concert by two young London policemen responding to complaints about excessive noise.
