Paul Mescal Attached to Star In BEATLES Biopic From Director Sam Mendes
Oscar nominee Paul Mescal, who is known for roles in Normal People and the films The Lost Daughter and All of Us Strangers and his most recent blockbuster Gladiator II, has signed on to star in another high profile Hollywood project.
Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road, 1917) is working on his much-discussed four-part biopic film series about The Beatles for Sony Pictures, and Mescal is unofficially on board to play Paul McCartney.
The casting — which was first rumored in the summer — was brought up by Mescal’s Gladiator 2 director Ridley Scott in a conversation with Christopher Nolan on Tuesday at the Directors Guild of America, in which he said “Paul is actually stacked up, doing the Beatles next.”
Sources close to the production have since confirmed to Variety that Scott wasn’t speaking out of turn, and Mescal — while not officially signed up as of yet — is indeed attached to the project.
Mescal is now widely expected to play Paul McCartney across four biopics Mendes is developing and will direct about the Fab Four, each focusing on a different band members and being released theatrically.
The project was first unveiled in February, but speculation about the casting broke several months later. Alongside Mescal as McCartney, Harris Dickinson was rumored to be playing John Lennon, Barry Keoghan was to play Ringo Starr, and Charlie Rowe would portray George Harrison.
Two weeks ago, Starr himself seemed to confirm that Keoghan was playing him, claiming that he thought the Irish actor was “somewhere taking drum lessons, and I hope not too many.”
Mescal’s casting, according to Scott at least, could well mean the two don’t collaborate together as had been planned. Last month Mescal was announced as starring in Scott’s new project, the thriller The Dog Stars, but the director suggested in his DGA talk on Tuesday that the scheduling might clash with The Beatles project. “So I have may have to let him go,” he said.
Mescal has a couple of upcoming films already shot and set to release in 2025, including The History of Sound alongside Josh O’Connor, and Hamnet with Jessie Buckley.
He is currently working on Richard Linklater’s adaptation of the musical Merrily We Roll Along.