Oscar-winning director Ron Howard is currently working on an official documentary about the Beatles‘ touring years, authorized by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, and rumored to be released this fall. The project, tentatively titled The Beatles Live, has been two 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.
Watch The Beatles live in Germany in 1966.
He’s also quite the Beatles fan. (When he was nine, the item that reportedly topped his birthday wish list was his very own Beatle wig.) “What’s so compelling to me is the perspective that we have now, the chance to really understand the impact that they had on the world,” Howard told Rolling Stone in a 2014 interview, when news of his forthcoming doc first broke. “That six-year period is such a dramatic transformation in terms of global culture and these remarkable four individuals, who were both geniuses and also entirely relatable. That duality is something that is going to be very interesting to explore.”
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.
The release date for the film is still to be announced, but until then you can check out the official website for the project here.
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Can’t wait to see this ! Concerts fully-restored and their music !