Sam Mendes' Four ‘Beatles' Movies Set for Release a Week Apart in April 2028

Remember when the plan was to drop all four movies on the same day? Many months ago, Sam Mendes had mentioned that he wanted all four of his Beatles movies released in theaters on the same day in April. It was audacious, a little insane, and now it's not happening.

Then again, a similarly insane plan is still in the works.

The four ‘Beatles’ movies are now slated to arrive a week apart across April 2028, billed as a "four-film cinematic event." Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival, producer Pippa Harris, who stepped off a set that's now 180 days into shooting, told an audience that the rollout is about the same period, not the same day. She’s pitching it as a month-long thing. Catch one a week, or however you like, as long as you see all four. Harris framed it as "the idea at the moment," so there’s clearly no official plan just yet.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, was going to sit through 8+ hours of Beatles biopic in one go, no matter how many Mescal fans Sony thinks it has (and it's far fewer than they might think).

Each film is supposed to stand on its own as the story of one man, though Harris argues that together they are “greater than the sum of their parts.” Honestly, the Beatles may be the only band you could legitimately justify four movies about.

Joseph Quinn is George, Paul Mescal is Paul, Barry Keoghan is Ringo, and Harris Dickinson is John. Jez Butterworth, Peter Straughan and Jack Thorne wrote the scripts. The supporting cast includes Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono and Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd. Sony is financing and distributing worldwide.

Here's why I think this rollout is nuts. By week four, all four movies should be playing at once. Good luck to any theater trying to juggle that. Add in the other movies opening that month, and you'd need at least six to seven screens to show all four throughout the day. Poor Ringo will have his film buried by the end of this run.

Mendes still hasn't revealed what order they arrive in. That decision may end up mattering more than any of the casting. I'd guess they start off with a bang, with either John or Paul kicking it off. Either way, 180 days and counting. This is a monster of a shoot, which at the start was aiming for 15 months of production. Good luck to all.