The Beatles have offered a “sneaky preview,” as director Peter Jackson puts it, of the upcoming documentary, The Beatles: Get Back. The film, to be released by Walt Disney Studios, is scheduled to be released on Aug. 27, 2021. Jackson introduced the roughly five-minute clip as a “preview of what we’ve been working on. It’s not a trailer; it’s a montage of what we have to give you a sense of the spirit of the film that we’re making.” Watch it below.
UPDATE: The documentary will now be presented as a three-part series, exclusively on Disney+
The montage, pulled from the many hours of never-before-seen footage, features the four Beatles rehearsing in the studio with many playful moments. There are numerous sequences of their performing the film’s title song, “Get Back,” in the studio as well as from their famous rooftop performance in London.
All the while, the Beatles are shown in their “work clothes,” wearing some of the fashionable garb of the day. The montage also shows many others in the extended Beatles family including producer George Martin, Billy Preston, Linda McCartney and Yoko Ono.
Watch The Beatles: Get Back, a sneak peak from Peter Jackson
Disney announced on March 10, 2020, that it had acquired the worldwide distribution rights to the acclaimed filmmaker’s previously announced documentary. At that time, the film was planned for a Sept. 4, 2020 release in the U.S. and Canada.
However, delays in the worldwide theatrical schedule have pushed back the releases of scores of films across all film studios. The Beatles: Get Back is now scheduled to be released on Aug. 27, 2021. Disney announced that move on Jun 12.
Related: Expanded, special editions of Let It Be were announced on Aug. 26, 2021
Disney’s original March 10 announcement noted, “the film will showcase the warmth, camaraderie and humor of the making of the legendary band’s studio album, Let It Be, and the entire 42-minute performance of their final live concert as a group, the iconic rooftop set on London’s Savile Row.” The studio’s original announcement was made by Robert A. Iger, Executive Chairman, The Walt Disney Company, at Disney’s annual meeting of shareholders.
The project was originally announced on January 30, 2019, on the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ rooftop performance.
The Beatles: Get Back, presented in association with Apple Corps Ltd. and WingNut Films Productions Ltd., is a new collaboration between The Beatles and Jackson, a three-time Oscar®-winning filmmaker. Compiled from over 55 hours of unseen footage, filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969, and 140 hours of mostly unheard audio recordings from the Let It Be album sessions, The Beatles: Get Back is directed by Jackson and produced by Jackson, Clare Olssen (They Shall Not Grow Old) and Jonathan Clyde, with Ken Kamins and Apple Corps’ Jeff Jones serving as executive producers.
The footage has been restored by Park Road Post Production of Wellington, New Zealand, and is being edited by Jabez Olssen, who collaborated with Jackson on 2018’s They Shall Not Grow Old, the groundbreaking film which featured restored and colorized World War I archival footage. The music in the film will be mixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Peter Jackson says, “Working on this project has been a joyous discovery. I’ve been privileged to be a fly on the wall while the greatest band of all time works, plays and creates masterpieces.”
Paul McCartney says, “I am really happy that Peter has delved into our archives to make a film that shows the truth about The Beatles recording together. The friendship and love between us comes over and reminds me of what a crazily beautiful time we had.”
Ringo Starr says, “I’m really looking forward to this film. 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 Beatles: Get Back is also being made with the support of Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison.
Omitted from the announcement was any mention of a companion audio edition. From 2017-2019, Apple Corps and UMe have issued elaborate 50th anniversary remastered editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (aka The White Album), and Abbey Road, with a variety of previously unreleased alternate takes and more.
Although the original Let It Be film, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and the accompanying album were filmed and recorded in January 1969, they were not released until May 1970, three weeks after The Beatles had officially broken up. The response to the film at the time by audiences and critics alike was strongly associated with that announcement. During the 15-month gap between the filming of Let It Be and its launch, The Beatles recorded and released their final studio album, Abbey Road, which came out in September 1969.
Shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm, the 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 Let It Be album topped the charts in the U.S. and the U.K.
[A companion book, simply titled The Beatles: Get Back, is coming on Aug. 31, 2021, from Callaway Arts & Entertainment. It’s available for pre-order in the U.S. here and the U.K. here. Full details are here.]
Watch the trailer for the book
The new documentary brings to light much more of the band’s intimate recording sessions for Let It Be and their entire 42-minute performance on the rooftop of Apple’s Savile Row London office.While there is no shortage of material of The Beatles’ extensive touring earlier in their careers, The Beatles: Get Back features the only notable footage of the band at work in the studio, capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they create their now-classic songs from scratch, laughing, bantering and playing to the camera.
Shot on January 30, 1969, The Beatles’ surprise rooftop concert marked the band’s first live performance in over two years and their final live set together. The footage captures interactions between the band members, reactions from fans and employees from nearby businesses, and comical attempts to stop the concert by two young London policemen responding to noise complaints.
Watch the previously released official video of “Don’t Let Me Down” from Let It Be
A fully restored version of the original Let It Be film will be made available at a later date.
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11 Comments
Simply the best band of all-time and any footage of material from this most iconic group will be appreciated by their millions of fans. It’s the end of an era and safe to say the 60’s produced the best music ever!
The unofficial Let t Be footage and audio has been circulating in bootleg version for the past 40 years. Let’s hope the new Get Back film is not a historic revision of the what Paul McCartney described as a “dreadful” recording session.
No even Paul said that it was a joy to watch
here’s my take:
Disc 1: Remixed Spector album
Disc 2: Remastered Spector
Disc 3: Remixed Glyn Johns
Disc 4: Original Glyn Johns
Disc 5: Remastered Glyn Johns
Disc 6: Remixed McCartney (LIBN)
Disc 7: Remastered McCartney (LIBN)
Disc 8: Outtakes Disc A
Disc 9: Outtakes Disc B
Disc 10: Outtakes Disc C
Disc 11/12/13: Twickenham Sessions (Complete)
Disc 14/15/16: Savile Row, Apple Sessions (complete)
Blu-Ray/DVD mix of ALL OF IT
Vinyl Mix
Cassette Tape mix
(for a limited time) Lindsay-Hogg film, Jackson Film
All of it in a large 8″X10″X4″ box
(Like the signature box)
55 hours of tape and only 80 minute film? That’s not appealing.
That was the length of the original film. The running time of Jackson’s film has yet to be announced.
On behalf of the group, I hope we passed the audition…
Out of 50+ hours of film, the “happy” bits will be shown. In an interview before his death, George Harrison stated the reason this was never before released, is because it showed the breakup of The Beatles. He already knew during the recording session that he was leaving.
That doesn’t look like a band on the verge of breaking up. We’ve been lied to all of these years!
i bought the bootleg from the back of a GUITAR PLAYER mag 20 years ago, tired of the pissing around of paul. if ya ask me, jackson is just fluffing it up for paul. iv’e seen it a million times, and you can tell these guys were tired of each other, AND tired of paul wanting to be the mother hen.
There were bands and there were bands. That was a band you’ll never see again the universe brought those four souls together for a reason and the rest is history. Thank you great spirit for letting me be born in 1964 it was a revolution