The Beatles biopic has found its Brian Epstein
British actor James Norton joins Sam Mendes’ Dantesque production.
Sam Mendes continues to refine his casting for his ambitious Beatles project.
It’s now James Norton, British actor revealed in detective series Grantchester and Happy Valleyand currently showing in House of Guinness on Netflix, who will play Brian Epstein, the group’s legendary manager.
Norton will join Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney), Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), Barry Keoghan (Ringo Starr) and Joseph Quinn (George Harrison) in The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Eventan extraordinary project imagined by Mendes.
Considered the “fifth Beatle”, Brian Epstein met the group in Liverpool in 1961 and helped transform these young musicians into a global phenomenon. He remained their manager until his tragic death in 1967 at the age of 32 from an overdose. (His life had already inspired the biopic Midas Man released in 2024.)
Note that James Norton, 40, is not his first musical biopic: he recently played producer Chris Blackwell in Bob Marley: One Love.
The director ofAmerican Beauty and of 1917 here prepares four distinct films, each told from the point of view of a Beatle. The four parts will be released simultaneously in April 2028, forming a narrative puzzle tracing the meteoric rise of the group, from Liverpool to conquering the world, until their separation in 1970.
Given Epstein’s central role in the quartet’s lives and careers, the manager is expected to appear in each of the films.
In terms of secondary roles, Saoirse Ronan will lend her features to Linda McCartney, Anna Sawai (Shogun) will be Yoko Ono, Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus) is tipped to play Pattie Boyd, Harrison’s muse, and Mia McKenna-Bruce will play Maureen Starkey, Ringo’s first wife.
