Sony Pictures have announced the cast of The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, directed by Sam Mendes, and due to be released in 2028. Not everyone is impressed, but the Irish Post's ShowBiz columnist KEIRA O'CALLAGHAN believes it’s got a ticket to ride. Deffo.
All you need is Scousers — or maybe a couple of Irish lads (image: Sony Pictures)
WE read the news today; oh boy. There hasn’t been this much furore over the casting of a movie since, well, last September, when it was announced that two Aussie megastars were lined up to play Cathy and Heathcliff in a new film of Wuthering Heights.
ShowBiz speaks, of course, of Sam Mendes’ forthcoming Beatles biopics, which after travelling the long and winding road of internet speculation are now confirmed to be going ahead. As expected, Harris Dickson is in for John Lennon, Paul Mescal for Paul McCartney and Joseph Quinn for George Harrison, while ShowBiz favourite, the dote Barry Keoghan, will play Ringo Starr. Each of the four films will focus on a different Beatle, with the others playing supporting roles.
Although the above names have been bandied around for quite a while, it’s only now, following the official press reveal in Las Vegas at CinemaCon 2025, that people are piling in with their two-pennyworth. Few of the opinions have been especially positive, so ShowBiz is here to shoot them down.
OBJECTION 1: None of the lead actors is from Liverpool.
“Were no Scousers available?” wail those who hail from the ’Pool, though without offering up any credible A-list alternatives. In an ideal world, of course, the filmmakers would have scoured the streets of Bootle and Kirkdale South for some gritty new talent, but it’s hard enough as it is to get people into the cinemas, let alone for films without big names above the title.
The more pertinent question is, can the faux-Fab Four convincingly ape the aspirated Liverpool twang? Can they learn to speak while apparently clearing their throats at the same time?
Some critics have spoken harshly about Barry Keoghan’s ‘dodgy’ Preston accent in Saltburn, though ShowBiz feels they’re missing the point. In order to engender sympathy, his character pretended to be more working-class than he was, meaning that his patchy Merseyside imitation was, in fact, a perfect fit.
Besides, if directors only cast actors in roles which obliged them to use their native tongues, then – to pluck just one example out of many thousands – The Wire would never have introduced us to Idris Elba. Let the thought of that loss sink in for a while.
OBJECTION 2: The four actors look nothing like the Beatles
At the CinemaCon, it has to be admitted that the four lads, dressed all in black to reference the Beatles’ early era, looked more like a bunch of Dior runway models than a pop group. But that was just the press launch, and anyway, biopics always necessitate a certain suspension of disbelief.
No actor is going to be a dead ringer for John, Paul, George or Ringo. If that was Sam Mendes’ sole priority he would have cast a tribute band or some of the Beatles’ more lookalike offspring. Dhani Harrison, for example – here comes the son? However, this is a major movie project, not Stars in their Eyes.
And think of all the actors who’ve successfully pulled this kind of thing off! Taron Egerton: looked nothing like Elton, but utterly convinced in Rocketman. Ditto Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in I Walk the Line. Just this year we’ve had the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown; admittedly in the looks department Timmy Chammy is cast from the same hot-rodent mould as Dylan, but what took everyone’s breath away was the uncanny way he crawled under his skin.
If Mendes’ cast can nail the Fab Four’s essence, the rest will surely follow. After all, Barry and Ringo possess a similarly sympathetic, jolie-laide appeal, while Mescal-Paul and McCartney-Paul both have the same kind of puppy-dog eyes, though admittedly not of the same colour.
The most amusing problem ShowBiz can foresee, apart from the fact that both actors are improbably ripped, is that Barry’s offbeat but undeniable sexiness might, for the first time in history, make Ringo hotter than Paul.
OBJECTION 3. They’re all a tad too old.
OK, so nobody’s going to buy into four late-twentysomething/early- thirtysomething actors playing a bunch of teenage hopefuls, but we have no idea which era(s) the films will cover.
Maybe four younger actors will be hired to play the nascent band during its pre-Hamburg era. Or maybe Mendes will choose to go down the Complete Unknown route, and focus on a short slice of history – the final years, maybe. If so, it would solve Objection 2, since any appearance can be disguised by facial hair. In fact, if the beards were thick enough, Mendes could even have cast Jodie Comer as Paul, solving Objection 1 at the same time.
OBJECTION 4: None of them are actual musicians
Unlikely to pose a problem. Many actors can also sing and dance, and Mendes is highly unlikely to have hired his Four without ascertaining they could carry a tune.
It’s possible Barry might have been given a pass on the vocals front anyway, since Ringo rarely sung lead; as for the drumming, he’s been taking lessons. “I hope not too many,” Ringo has said.
As for Lennon, it can’t be too difficult to impersonate that insolent drawl; Liam Gallagher does it all the time. Just ask Mal Rogers, the editor of this newspaper. Back in the early ’90s, when Oasis were just starting out, Mal booked them to play The George Robey, the pub he then owned. “I just assumed they were a Beatles tribute band”, he says.
And look, if the worst comes to the worst, there’s always AI and auto-tuning.
OBJECTION 5: The films are unlikely to tell the truth, the truth and nothing but the truth.
Approval was required from surviving* Beatles Paul and Ringo, and the custodians of John and George’s estates, so the contract is likely to be littered with sanctions.
*[Note to ed: check still true at point of going to press]
But that’s also OK. We already know about all the sex, drink and drugs; we know that John could be a lousy husband and a worse father, but if anything more serious had happened the details would probably have surfaced by now.
Sam Mendes will presumably aim for something halfway between hagiography and warts-and-all, and that’s fine; if we come out of the cinema believing Ringo’s frequently voiced claim that The Beatles were just “four guys that loved each other”, who’s not going to be happy with that? Isn’t there enough misery in the world without someone doing a hatchet job on our beloved icons?
In summary, ShowBiz feels that everyone should give the project the benefit of the doubt. It’s a big, brave undertaking, which could well turn out to be incredible. There’ll be a bit of a wait, of course: The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event isn’t due out until April 2028. It’s being called the “first bingeable theatrical experience”, making Barbenheimer seem as epic as an advert break.
And as the makers of the Marvel movies know so well, there’s something irresistible about crossover films. ShowBiz, for one, can’t wait to see John, Paul, George and Ringo travel Across the Universe.
See More: Sam Mendes, Sony Pictures, The Beatles
