After The Beatles broke up in 1970, they gave their fans one last gift: The group’s final album, Let It Be, came out in May of that year, very quickly after the group called it quits. The record was recorded between 1968 and 1970, and during that time, a bunch of studio footage was filmed. Now it’s been revealed that director Peter Jackson is creating a new documentary about the recording of Let It Be, based on 55 hours of never-before-seen video.
Jackson said of the project:
“After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there’s moments of drama — but none of the discord this project has long been associated with. Watching John, Paul, George and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating — it’s funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate. […] 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.”
Jackson’s most recent film was the World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, which made use of new digital techniques, pioneered by Jackson’s own Park Road Post, to restore the historic film. Jackson said he will use this technology to restore the 16mm film the Beatles footage was shot on, so for a look at what this Beatles movie could look like, check out a trailer for They Shall Not Grow Old below, but imagine the soldiers are instead John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
