How Sam Mendes' quartet of films on The Beatles aims to tell Fab Four's whole story

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

The very mention of The Beatles conjures up images of screaming fans, mop-top haircuts, and songs that became synonyms with the swinging sixties, added a fresh chapter in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll, and etched themselves forever in the hearts and minds of generations; songs about love, peace, social consciousness, loneliness, childhood nostalgia and drug culture that still hit differently. The four working-class boys, who shot to global stardom from the smoky clubs of Merseyside in Liverpool (UK), evoke nostalgia like few other bands’ members do.

For those interested in everything Beatles, there is good news. Sam Mendes, the British filmmaker behind American Beauty (1999), Road to Perdition (2002), Revolutionary Road (2008), and Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), is set to showcase the band’s journey in a four-film project about The Beatles, with all movies scheduled for a simultaneous theatrical release in April 2028. The films, featuring Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney), Joseph Quinn (George Harrison), and Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr), will offer distinct perspectives on the band’s history.

The first announcement in this regard was made in early 2024, but with the recent updates on the project, including the fact that Farhan Akhtar — who was recently seen in 120 Bahadur and is rumoured to play Don in the third instalment of his own directorial after Ranveer Singh exited — is going to play sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in his Hollywood debut, there is going to be great interest in India as well. In 1968, as the counterculture was searching for new spiritual coordinates, Ravi Shankar became an important bridge between Indian classical music and Western rock royalty. That February, The Beatles travelled to Rishikesh to study Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram on the banks of the Ganges.

Source: Nawaid Anjum/thefederal.com