For years there’s been talk of making a biopic of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, but nothing has come of it so far. Currently there are two movies about him in the works, and now one of them has a director, as Deadline reports that Peyton Reed has signed on to direct The Fifth Beatle.
We first heard about the movie in October, when it was announced that very unusually for a Beatles based film, the adaptation of Vivek J. Tiwary’s graphic novel has been given full access to bands’ music library.
The official synopsis from the project’s website says, ‘THE FIFTH BEATLE recounts the untold true story of Epstein, the brilliant visionary who discovered The Beatles and helped guide the band to international stardom as their manager, securing their first record deal at a time when no one else was interested, and successfully bringing them to the world stage with a scale and scope no music impresario had ever attempted. Epstein’s boast – “The Beatles will be bigger than Elvis!” – seemed absurd in 1961, but proved humbly prophetic by 1967. When he died at the age of 32, he was an extremely successful artist manager and entertainment impresario, but a painfully lonely young man.’
What that doesn’t mention is that the graphic novel also deals by Epstein’s issues with sexuality and religion – he was gay, which was known to those close to him, including the Beatles, but not generally outside his circle.
Peyton Reed commented,”From the moment I read Vivek’s graphic novel, I knew I wanted to be the person to bring Brian’s story to the big screen. I’m a lifelong Beatles fan, obviously, but it’s Brian’s fascinating life that really blew me away and drew me to this project. He’s the ultimate outsider who, against all odds, became the ultimate insider. He was responsible for shepherding the most popular artistic expression of “love” in the history of modern culture, and yet he wasn’t allowed to express his own love during that time.”
Shooting will begin sometime next year with the Yes Man and Bring It On helmer directing.
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