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Ron Howard Set to Direct Authorized Documentary on The Beatles

by Ethan Anderton
July 16, 2014

Hot on the heels of the 50th anniversary re-release of the musical classic A Hard Day's Night, featuring the iconic British import The Beatles, it turns out The Fab Four have a new film on the way as well. Apple Corps Ltd, White Horse Pictures and Imagine Entertainment announced in a press release that they are teaming up to produce a documentary about the early party of The Beatles career. More specifically, it will focus on the touring years following the rock group from their early days in the Cavern Club in Liverpool to shows in Hamburg and all the way to their last public concert in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, in 1966.

And even better news is that director Ron Howard will be at the helm of the film with the full support of surviving Beatles members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr along with John Lennon and George Harrison's widows Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. The director of films such as A Beautiful Mind and most recently Rush is obviously thrilled to be part of this project saying:

"I am excited and honored to be working with Apple and the White Horse team on this astounding story of these four young men who stormed the world in 1964. Their impact on popular culture and the human experience cannot be exaggerated."

The press releases dives into more detail about the time period this doc will cover:

The Beatles began touring Europe in late 1963, after an extraordinary arrival on the British scene in 1961 and '62. However, it was their much-heralded Ed Sullivan appearance on February 9, 1964 that caused The Beatles' popularity to explode. By June, the band had commenced their first world tour, and continued on a relentless schedule for two subsequent years. By the time the band stopped touring in August of 1966, they had performed 166 concerts in 15 countries and 90 cities around the world. The cultural phenomenon their touring helped create, known as "Beatlemania," was something the world had never seen before and laid the foundation for the globalization of culture.

So expect tons of teenage girls screaming throughout the documentary, and hopefully there will be plenty of footage we haven't seen in countless other retrospectives. With the cooperation of The Beatles, all the music will be there too, so that makes this even better. Howard will also produce the film with Imagine partner Brian Grazer along with Grammy winners Nigel Sinclair and Scott Pascucci from White Horse. The director seems to have found a passion for music documentaries lately coming off Made in America, his film that follows Jay-Z as he puts on a concert in Philadelphia.

And he'll have great help with Mark Monroe (Sound City, Chasing Ice, The Cove) scripting the doc. Plus, Sinclair is more than experienced with documentaries of this nature since he's produced the Emmy and BAFTA-winning George Harrison: Living in the Material World and the Grammy-winning No Direction Home: Bob Dylan. More recently, he's also been involved with the Oscar-winning Undefeated and the Grammy-winning Foo Fighters: Back and Forth. This sounds like the perfect team to bring the early years of The Beatles to the big screen in the first officially authorized big screen project. Could more be coming?

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