“We need big cinematic events to get people out of the house,” director Sam Mendes told a packed audience at the CinemaCon market event on March 31. He was talking about his most ambitious project yet – a project that very much deserves to be called a cinematic event. Mendes is set to direct not just one, but four Beatles biopics, one for each member of the legendary rock band. At the conference, the names of the actors that are set to play the Fab Four were also announced: Harris Dickinson will appear as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and, finally, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. And, you know, Mendes does have a point: with movie theaters struggling to stay in business ever since the pandemic hit, big events meant to draw the public out of their homes seem to be exactly what we need. But the idea of splitting the Beatles’ biopic into four different movies still doesn’t sound right. In the end, do we really need a Beatles Cinematic Universe?
