Copyright Deadline
While the cast of Sam Mendes’ The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event has been speculated on for quite some time now, Sony has now officially closed deals for four cast members: Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex), Saoirse Ronan (Little Women), Anna Sawai (Shōgun), and Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus). McKenna-Bruce will play Ringo Starrs’s first wife, Maureen (Cox) Starkey, with Ronan as Paul McCartneys’s first wife, Linda (Eastman) McCartney. We were first to report on the latter. Sawai is confirmed for the role of John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, with Wood set to play George Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd. Maureen Cox was an early fan of The Beatles who met Ringo Starr at the Cavern Club in 1962. Their romance blossomed quickly; they married in 1965 and had three children together. Linda Eastman was a celebrated photographer when she met Paul McCartney in 1967. There was an instant attraction, and McCartney later said, “The first time I saw her, I just knew.” John Lennon first met the Japanese artist Yoko Ono at a London exhibition of her work. Although Lennon was married at the time, he was immediately intrigued by Yoko, and the two eventually became inseparable creative partners for the rest of his life. Pattie Boyd was a successful model when, in 1964, she met George Harrison on the set of the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night. The two began dating and later married, with Boyd sharing Harrison’s growing interest in Eastern mysticism. “Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures in their own right,” said Mendes. “And I’m thrilled that we’ve managed to persuade four of the most talented women working in film today to join this amazing adventure.” As previously announced, The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event will star Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, with each film telling the story of a different member of the band. We were first to report on the Beatles films from Mendes, all of which will be released in theaters in April 2028. Mendes will direct from scripts written by Jez Butterworth, Peter Straughan and Jack Thorne, as we told you first, though it’s unclear which projects each is tackling. A collaboration between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Mendes’ Neal Street Productions, the films will be produced by Mendes, Pippa Harris and Julie Pastor of Neal Street, as well as Alexandra Derbyshire, in association with Apple Corps for Sony Pictures. This marks the first time that The Beatles and Apple Corps Ltd. have authorized the use of the band members’ life stories and music in scripted films. In addition to distributing, Sony Pictures is the financier of the projects. Breaking out with How to Have Sex, which won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes, McKenna-Bruce won the BAFTA Rising Star Award and the British Independent Film Award for her work there. She is repped by 42 Management, UTA and Luber Roklin. The second-youngest person to accrue four Academy Award nominations, Ronan is known for films like Little Women and Lady Bird from Greta Gerwig, Atonement and Brooklyn. She is repped by CAA. Sawai broke out with her work in FX’s Shōgun, receiving an Emmy and Golden Globe for her performance. She is repped by WME, 42, United Agents and Chris Abramson. Wood was widely praised for her performance in the third season of The White Lotus, for which she received an Emmy nomination, prior to that breaking out as part of the series Sex Education, for which she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance. She is repped by CAA, Independent and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
