The biopic-industrial complex just won’t die, no matter how much we hex it, so instead let’s turn off our minds, relax, and float down to Beatles casting news. According to The InSneider, the upcoming Sam Mendes–directed projects will star a delectable quartet, most of whom have been the white boy of the month in our recent past, thanks to their sex appeal and perhaps acting ability, if that matches your freak. Harris Dickinson will reportedly play John Lennon, alongside Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Charlie Rowe as George Harrison. As previously reported, Sony has greenlit four films, with each feature focused on a different member of the band. Production is scheduled to begin next year for a 2027 release.
Will this Fab Four do the British boy band justice? Well, the alleged cast doesn’t look like a carbon copy of The Beatles, that’s for sure, and they might even be sexier than them based on purely physical contemporary standards. Does that mean they’re too hot to play the Liverpool lads? That question strikes at the heart of what it means to adequately bring a biography to life. The point of a biopic is to capture the essence of the subject, not to create a Madame Tussauds fun house that glosses over history in favor of a perfect likeness (most biopics fail at both, hence the hex). Back in the Beatles’ day, those boys were pure sex to the general population, making their fans hot and bothered at the mere needle drop of one of their many hits. Like, it was a mess wherever the Fab Four went. People were fainting in the streets! They were going feral, clawing out their eyes (figuratively, probably) because they wanted them so badly in unspeakable ways. The real question is … can the rumored cast live up to that? Mr. Bathwater, maybe, but the rest of y’all are gonna have to prove it.