Sam Mendes’ Beatles reveal themselves: first official photos

Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon. The resemblance is striking!

The Beatles cinema version is (finally) beginning to reveal itself.

And not with a classic teaser or a well-framed promo photo, no: Sam Mendes’ titanic project has just delivered a very first glimpse of his Fab Four thanks to… postcards hidden on a campus.

This week, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts caused a surprise on social media by revealing that it held exclusive cards linked to the upcoming series of four films. Students and fans were invited to go on a treasure hunt to find them, triggering the most “British” escape possible: the very first official look of the actors in costumes.

In these images, there is no spectacular staging, nor grandiose reconstruction. But the main thing is there: Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon. Just photos to display the look and resemblance. And in the game of who has the best make-up, we must recognize that Barry Keoghan’s Ringo Starr is astonishing in his mimicry.

Titled The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Eventthe project will take the form of a film per member of the group, all directed by Sam Mendes. Four feature films, four points of view, and a clear ambition: to tell the story of the group through the intimate perspective of each person. Releases are set for April 7, 2028, with narration billed as subjective — each film being constructed from the perspective of the Beatle concerned.

On the casting side, Mendes also offers a solid cast, designed to cover the group’s legendary entourage: Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, James Norton as Brian Epstein, Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono, Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd, Harry Lloyd as George Martin, David Morrissey as Jim McCartney, Leanne Best as Mimi Smith, Bobby Schofield as Neil Aspinall, Daniel Hoffmann-Gill as Mal Evans, Arthur Darvill as Derek Taylor and Adam Pally as Allen Klein.

A key question remains: how will these four films fit together? According to several reports, the plan would be to tell the trajectory of the group in a sequential manner: each film would cover a different period, making it possible to retrace the rise of the Beatles step by step, until their transformation into a global phenomenon.

Behind the camera The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic EventSam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall, 1917) will be in the oven and mill, also producer. Filming will begin in the United Kingdom.

The four films will be released simultaneously on April 7, 2028 in theaters.