Report: Peter Jackson's planned Beatles film is sparking a buying “frenzy”

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getty_beatlesrooftop_121319

Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesBack in January, The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. announced that it had tapped Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson to turn 55 hours of unreleased footage into a new take on the band’s 1970 documentary, Let It Be.  Now, the Hollywood Reporter claims the movie has sparked a buying “frenzy” among all the new streaming platforms.

Amazon just paid $25 million for a Rihanna documentary, while Apple TV+ forked over $26 million for a doc on 17-year-old pop-rock wunderkind Billie Eilish.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jackson’s film is currently being shopped around, and buyers predict it could rake in even more money than the Eilish film.

“Everybody is talking to Jackson right now, and it ain’t going to be cheap,” one buyer told The Hollywood Reporter.

Another told the publication, “It’s a land grab right now. Every producer is trying to figure out what artist is next for a doc that will spark an eight-figure sale.”

If any artist can command those figures, it’s likely the Beatles.  Jackson has described the planned movie as “the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience that Beatles fans have long dreamed about,” adding, “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.”

He also said the film will be “funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate.” 

A deal for the film — which won’t be called Let It Be — will likely be signed early in the New Year.  May 13, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of the original release of the Let It Be film.

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