Peter Jackson Directing Beatles Documentary Let It Be

Following on from the critical success of his World War One documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson has announced that he will next direct a documentary about the Beatles. The film will be called Let It Be, and will consist of unused footage which was originally shot for the 1970 documentary about the album of the same name. Beatles fans will no doubt be ecstatic at this news.

Jackson was quoted as saying the following:

“The 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to us, ensures this movie will be the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about – it’s like a time machine transports us back to 1969, and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together.”

In a separate tweet on the official Beatles Twitter account, Jackson also said that making the movie “will be a sheer joy”, so the three time Oscar-winner will clearly be handling the project with the care and dedication it deserves.

At one point, Jackson was one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood, so the fact that he now devotes his time to working on smaller-scale documentaries as opposed to big budget epics speaks volumes about how seriously he takes his art. He won’t be returning to Middle-earth any time soon, but Jackson has clearly found a niche when it comes to making documentary passion projects.

Interestingly, the Beatles tried to purchase the film rights to Lord of the Rings in the 1960s, but (thankfully) they were unsuccessful. Whether or not that will be acknowledged in Jackson’s film remains to be seen.

The new version of Let It Be does not yet have a release date, but it is likely that it will be coming our way next year to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the original film.

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