The eagerly awaited documentary The Beatles: Eight Days A Week (working title) from director Ron Howard will debut in theaters this Fall. Hulu has secured the exclusive U.S. streaming video on-demand rights to the Academy Award winner’s feature documentary based on the first part of The Beatles’ career – 1962-1966 – in which they toured and Beatlemania captured the world’s attention. The film is produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison.
Howard’s film will explore how the Fab Four came together and will explore their inner workings – how they made decisions, created their music and built their collective career together – all the while, exploring The Beatles’ extraordinary and unique musical gifts and their complementary personalities. The film will focus on the time period from the early Beatles’ journey in the days of The Cavern Club in Liverpool to their last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1966. The Beatles: Eight Days A Week also includes rare and exclusive footage.
Don’t miss a post! Sign up for Best Classic Bands‘ Newsletter; form is on every page.
Details about the film’s international television and streaming partners, and its theatrical and DVD release in Autumn 2016 will be announced soon.
The Beatles:Eight Days A Week marks the first documentary feature to premiere exclusively on Hulu following its theatrical run. The film comes to Hulu in the company’s first-ever licensing deal with Apple Corps Ltd. The film will be the first to launch under the new Hulu Documentary Films arm, which will serve as a new home for premium original and exclusive documentary film titles coming to Hulu.
The project has been several years in the making, and it will share the Beatles’ journey from their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg to their 1966 final public concert in San Francisco, offering fans an all-access backstage pass complete with in-depth interviews and insights into the band members’ relationships, musical gifts and personalities.
Post-The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days, Howard is probably best known for directing the films Cocoon, Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code and A Beautiful Mind, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Director. His production company with partner Brian Grazer – Imagine Entertainment (note John Lennon reference) – is said to be the largest independent production company in the film business.
In 2012, producers reached out directly to fans for home movie clips, photos and miscellaneous rare footage to use in the film. Concerts shown in the doc are also being fully restored by Giles Martin, who earned a Grammy for his work on the Beatles’ LOVE album (a soundtrack remix) with his father, Sir George Martin.
White Horse Pictures’ Grammy Award-winning Nigel Sinclair, Scott Pascucci and Academy Award-winner and multiple nominee Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment are producing with Howard. Apple Corps Ltd’s Jeff Jones and Jonathan Clyde are serving as executive producers, along with Imagine’s Michael Rosenberg and White Horse’s Guy East and Nicholas Ferrall. The film is co-produced by One Voice One World’s Matt White, Stuart Samuels and Bruce Higham.
