Ron Howard to Direct Authorized Beatles Documentary

Ron Howard is leaving fiction behind and getting into the documentary business.

The Academy Award-winning director will helm an authorized documentary centering on the Liverpool years of The Beatles. Specifically, the feature-length documentary will tackle the period from 1960-1966 when the quartet was just beginning to take over the world with 166 concerts in 15 countries and 90 cities. The story will culminate with their 1966 concert in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, which was arguably during the peak of their success.

The film is notable not just because of the subject matter, but because it has been officially authorized by The Beatles's holding company, Apple Corps Ltd, and will also have the complete cooperation of surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono Lennon, and George Harrison’s widow Olivia Harrison. It is expected that the film will be released next year, although there are reportedly already talks of a sequel focusing on the group's political controversies as well as its eventual break-up.

Here are further details on the film from Deadline:

The film begins with the band honing its chops in Liverpool’s Cavern Club, to its first road trip shows in Hamburg, Germany, and other European countries in 1963, right before they came to America for an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. That appearance, on February 9, 1964 sparked a generation of future musicians like Eagles leaders Don Henley and Glenn Frey to make their parents rush out and buy them musical instruments.

Howard was turning 10 and was halfway through his run on The Andy Griffith Show when he saw the Sullivan broadcast, one of those cultural zeitgeist moments where people remember exactly where they were when it happened. “Not only did I see the Ed Sullivan Show along with everybody else, the only thing I wanted for my tenth birthday was a Beatles wig, which I got.,” Howard told Deadline. “I’d never thought about bands before, only Elvis. These guys looked and sounded different, and were absolutely explosive to watch. The girls were screaming. It was this flash of genius and uniqueness, but they were also relate-able. Seeing them on The Ed Sullivan Show was right up there with the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, in terms of images from the television set that I’ll never forget, and that were pivot points of what was possible.”

Sinclair has produced music documentaries on Bob Dylan, The Who, Foo Fighters and the Martin Scorsese-directed George Harrison: Living In The Material World. The latter brought a relationship with Apple and he broached the idea of a Beatles docu as he, Howard and Grazer worked on the Chris Hemsworth-Daniel Bruhl Formula One film Rush. Sinclair glimpsed the British invasion from the other side of the pond. He said it was even more profound.

“It was more pervasive in Britain, all Beatles, all day, from August till December, 1963,” he recalled. “There were eight national newspapers, and every one of those papers during that period had a Beatles story on the front page, every day. The Beatles were 22 and 23, and there was no culture of celebrity and stars then. The Beatles pioneered the idea of the meta-celebrity and the idea that so many people could be thinking and feeling the same thing at the same moment, listening to the same record. And then they dissolved in 1970, a short span compared with many groups. There is something unique about their lifestyle, their point of view and the way they assimilated their experiences and shared them back with society. It changed society, and certainly changed things in Britain.”

Naturally, all the press the film is getting, in addition to its official authorization by the various estates associated with The Beatles, have led to some incredible bonuses for the project. Namely, collectors are coming forward with rare footage and soundboards of concerts, along with other unseen video.

“That footage is so valuable to me as a director, being able to offer the audience an experience,” said Howard. “Applying digital technology to this 8mm and Super 8 footage that has been located and continues to be found, that has never been seen before, and combining that with what has also been collected, these mixes, these tracks from these soundboards, will allow us to synch up these Super 8 and 8 millimeter images, those home movies, and create this very intimate concert experiences for audiences. We get to tell the story and offer this very visceral, exciting, emotional experience for people who go see the film. “

It sounds like an incredible project, and we can't wait to see it. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes the frontrunner for the Best Documentary Oscar in a year's time.

Via: Deadline

Credit: NBC