The Beatles (Photo credit: Apple Corp)
Peter Jackson is working on a documentary chronicling the recording process of Let It Be, The Beatles’ final album, with the cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison.
The project was announced today – the 50th anniversary of the band’s rooftop concert atop Apple Records offices in London – by Apple Corp. and Jackson’s WingNut Films.
The director is drawing on 55 hours of unreleased footage, which was originally intended for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary Let it Be and is being restored by Park Road Post.
The doc will also utilise 140 hours of audio, ensuring the movie will be the “ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about,” Jackson said in a statement.
“It’s like a time machine transports us back to 1969 and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together.”
Jackson claims that the footage dispels the long-held belief that tensions ran high during the recording of the album, which was released after The Beatles had broken up.
“I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth,” he says. “After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there’s moments of drama — but none of the discord this project has long been associated with.
“Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch is not only fascinating — it’s funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate.”
Apple said a restored version of Lindsay-Hogg’s film will get a digital release following Jackson’s documentary. No distribution has yet been announced for the doc, Jackson’s follow-up to his acclaimed World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, which was acquired by Warner Bros. and grossed $8.3 million in US cinemas.