Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ final concert, and the band’s surviving members are marking the occasion with a major announcement. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has been tapped to helm a new documentary on the band’s final album, 1970’s Let It Be.
The Academy Award-winning director has been provided 55 hours of never-released footage and 140 hours of audio taken from the recording sessions, which he’ll will look to restore using the same techniques developed for his recent World War 1 documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old. For that project, Jackson digitally restored 100-year-old footage, adjusted its frame rate, colorized it, and converted it to 3-D.
Jackson says the film will be “the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about – 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.”
(Read: Top 10 Songs By The Beatles After The Beatles)
“I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth,” adds Jackson in a press statement, “After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there’s moments of drama – but none of the discord this project has long been associated with. Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating – it’s funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate”.
The untitled film is currently in production and a release date will be announced in the future. It is being made with the full co-operation of surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, John Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono, and George Harrison’s wife Olivia Harrison.
Following the release of this new film, a restored version of the original Let It Be movie directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg will also be made available.
For a taste of Jackson’s handwork, watch the trailer for the aforementioned They Shall Not Grow Old below. The film is nominated for the 2019 BAFTA for Best Documentary.
