08-05-2025
Jack Thorne, Jez Butterworth And Peter Straughan To Pen ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event' For Sam Mendes And Sony
EXCLUSIVE: After officially announcing the cast for their incredible endeavor at CinemaCon in March, Sam Mendes and Sony Pictures now have landed the writers that will help spearhead The Beatles – A Four Film Cinematic Event. Sources tell Deadline that Tony Award winner Jez Butterworth, Oscar winner Peter Straughan and BAFTA and Tony winner Jack Thorne are set to write the screenplays for the biopics of The Beatles, whose stories will be told in four distinct theatrical feature films.
It is unknown if each will be writing their own film or will be collaborating on all four films.
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The movies mark the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – or their estates have granted full life-story and music rights for a scripted film. As conceived by Mendes, who will direct the four movies, one from each band member's point of view, that will intersect to tell the astonishing story of the greatest band in history.
The four films will star Harris Dickinson as Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Starr, Paul Mescal as McCartney and Quinn as George Harrison.
Sony Pictures will finance and distribute worldwide with full theatrical windows in April 2028. The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event is a Neal Street production in association with Apple Corps for Sony Pictures. Mendes is producing alongside his Neal Street partner Pippa Harris and Neal Street's Julie Pastor. Alexandra Derbyshire (Wonka) also is producing.
Butterworth's recent screenwriting credits include James Mangold's Ford v Ferrari and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny along with Spectre, Black Mass and Edge of Tomorrow. Butterworth also is an award-winning playwright who wrote The Ferryman, for which he won the Tony for Best Play, and most recently The Hills of California, which just received seven Tony nominations including for Best Play. Both were directed by Mendes.
Straughan most recently won the Oscar for his screenplay for Edward Berger's thriller Conclave starring Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini. He previously co-wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with his late wife, Bridget O'Connor. The screenplay earned them an Academy Award nomination and won the BAFTA. His other film credits include Our Brand Is Crisis, and Frank. For television, Straughan adapted Hilary Mantel's bestselling novel Wolf Hall, which won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series. He also wrote its sequel, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
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Thorne is a BAFTA- and Tony-winning screenwriter and theatre writer. His smash Netflix series Adolescence has garnered widespread acclaim. His film credits include The Swimmers; Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin; The Aeronauts, starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne; and Wonder, starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson. His other TV credits include Toxic Town, His Dark Materials, Help and Best Interests. On the theater side, Thorne wrote the Tony- and Olivier-winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and most recently The Motive and The Cue, directed by Mendes.
Butterworth is repped by CAA and Alan Wertheimer at Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Straughan is repped by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates and CAA. Thorne is repped by UTA, Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern.
The InSneider newsletter was first to report Thorne as a writer.
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