In collaboration with The Beatles, New Zealander film director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies), has just signed on to make a behind-the-scenes film based around the Let it Be (1970) studio sessions.
The news broke on Wednesday morning after a spokesperson for The Beatles issued a press release on the band’s Twitter page.
The three-time Academy Award winner will use more than 55 hours worth of unseen footage captured during the making of The Beatles’ final album in 1969.
Jackson, 57, promised that the movie “will be the ultimate fly-on-the-wall experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about.”
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“I’m thrilled and honoured to have been entrusted with this remarkable footage,” continued Jackson. “Making the movie will be a sheer joy.”
The exclusive footage was originally captured at London’s Twickenham Studios by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
The now 78-year-old used only 80 minutes of that content to produce the iconic Let it Be documentary released in 1970, the same one that included the legendary “rooftop concert” at Apple Corps’ Savile Row office in London.
That was The Beatles’ last performance ever; recorded 50 years ago to date (Jan. 30, 1969). The Liverpool lads split up shortly after in early 1970.
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Jackson further revealed that the footage is fortunately not as “dramatic” as many fans have believed it to be.
“I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth,” wrote Jackson. “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.”
He was, in fact, referring to Hogg’s 1970 documentary which insinuated that tensions in the studio during the Let it Be sessions led to The Beatles’ ultimate demise.
“Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating,” added Jackson. “It’s funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate.”
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With the help of Jackson’s prowess of cinema, it sounds like diehard Beatles fans may have something exciting to look forward to.
As of this writing, no release date has been slated for the untitled project.
Hogg’s footage was recorded entirely in Twickenham Studios between Jan. 2 and Jan. 31, 1969.
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