Disney+ has debuted a new trailer and poster for the three-part documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, which takes fans “back in time” to 1969, when the iconic band found itself in a rush to write and record a new album in three weeks. Directed by Academy Award-winner Peter Jackson, the Disney+ original docuseries will provide “the most intimate and honest glimpse into the creative process and relationship between John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr ever filmed.”
The four-minute trailer sets up the stakes. In January 1969, it tells us, a film crew was granted “unprecedented access” to document The Beatles at work. They captured over 57 hours of “the most intimate footage ever shot of the band,” footage that was subsequently locked away in a vault for over half-a-century, unseen, until now. The material was originally filmed for a concert film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
Interpersonal conflicts, looming deadlines, and the agony of the creative process all come together as the band knocks out some of the most memorable music ever written, for what would become The Beatles' 1970 album, Let it Be. There is also a brief mention of the ripple within the band that Lennon and Yoko Ono’s romance caused, and McCartney speculating what it could mean “in 50 years' time.” The trailer ends with a tease of “The Beatles’ last live performance as a group, the unforgettable rooftop concert on London’s Savile Row,” which the series will present “for the first time in its entirety.”
2021 has been a major year for music documentaries. Things kicked off with Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry and only got better with Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers, Questlove’s Summer of Soul, and the upcoming The Velvet Underground, directed by Todd Haynes. Jackson, who is (and perhaps always will be) best known for having directed all six films in the Middle earth saga, is in a bit of a documentary phase. He pushed the boundaries of digital restoration with his last film, They Shall Not Grow Old and used similar techniques here, as well.
The Beatles: Get Back is directed by Jackson, produced by Jackson, McCartney, Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon, Olivia Harrison, Clare Olssen (They Shall Not Grow Old) and Jonathan Clyde (Eight Days a Week), with Apple Corps’ Jeff Jones (Eight Days a Week) and Ken Kamins (The Hobbit trilogy) serving as executive producers. Jabez Olssen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) serves as the film’s editor, the music supervisor is Giles Martin (Rocketman), Michael Hedges (The Adventures of Tintin) and Brent Burge (The Hobbit trilogy) serve as the series re-recording mixers, and the music is mixed by Martin and Sam Okell (Yesterday).
The Beatles: Get Back will premiere on Disney+ on November 25, 26, and 27, over three two-hour-long episodes. You can watch the trailer here:
