The Beatles' Biopics Producer Explains Why All Four Films Are Releasing at Once in 2028

Producer Pippa Harris has defended the release plan for Sam Mendes' The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, in which all four movies reach cinemas together in April 2028 through Sony Pictures. Variety reports that she spoke at an industry talk at the BFI London Film Festival on Monday, after the strategy left some in the industry puzzled.

The remarks offer the clearest explanation yet of a plan that departs sharply from how studios usually handle multi-film projects, and they arrive while the production is still deep in its shoot.

A Release Strategy That Raised Questions

Harris said each film stands alone as the story of one of the four men, but that together they carry a cumulative power greater than the sum of their parts. She also indicated that audiences are not expected to watch all four on the same day. Mendes has previously described the plan as the first “bingeable” moment in cinema.

Most film series reach audiences one installment at a time, with months or years separating each release. That model gives studios repeated marketing opportunities and lets audiences discuss one chapter before the next arrives. Opening four films in the same month reverses that logic. It asks viewers to treat the project as a single cultural event, closer to a season of television made available all at once than to a traditional franchise, and it places a considerable bet on audiences returning to cinemas several times within a short window.

Harris's comment that viewers need not watch all four in a day addresses an obvious concern. The plan does not demand a marathon; it offers a choice in how and when to take in the story, with each film positioned as a complete work in its own right.

Four Men, Four Films

Structuring the project around individual stories gives each member of the band a film of his own. The Beatles were a group whose members brought distinct personalities and creative contributions, and a format that assigns one film to each allows the project to explore those differences rather than compressing them into a single narrative. Harris's description of films that stand alone but gain strength together suggests the intention is for overlapping events to be seen from different vantage points.

The approach also sets the project apart from earlier screen treatments of the band. Previous films have dealt with the group during specific periods or looked at individual members, and the 2021 documentary series Get Back examined the making of a single album. A four-film event built from scripted drama aims at a broader view of the band's life and music.

The Cast Taking On the Band

Deadline reports that Harris, speaking during a career Q&A at the festival, said the production was on day 180 of its shoot. The films star Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.

The four actors are each associated with acclaimed work in recent years across film and television, and the casting assembles a group of younger performers rather than established stars of an older generation. A shoot that has reached 180 days is also a sign of the project's scale. Filming four separate features, even with shared sets and crew, is a long undertaking, and the figure helps explain why the release has been scheduled well into 2028.

Rights, Producers and a Shifting Date

The project is a collaboration between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Mendes' Neal Street Productions, with Mendes, Harris, Julie Pastor and Alexandra Derbyshire producing in association with Apple Corps. It is the first time the band and Apple Corps have granted full life-story and music rights for scripted films. When the project was first announced in February 2024, the films were expected in 2027.

Apple Corps is the company the band founded in 1968, and its approval is central to any project that draws on the group's history and recordings. Securing both life-story and music rights is significant because it allows the films to portray events and use the songs themselves, something that is not guaranteed in a music biography. The move of the release from 2027 to April 2028 reflects the time required to complete a production of this size, and it places the films in cinemas later than the date first expected.

Mendes and the Long View

Mendes, who directed American Beauty, Skyfall and 1917, has taken on a project that demands both scale and intimacy, and the release plan is part of the same ambition. By presenting the films together, the filmmakers are inviting audiences to treat them as a single body of work. Whether that strategy pays off at the box office will not be known until April 2028, but Harris's comments make clear that the producers regard the approach as integral to the project rather than a marketing gimmick.