WELLINGTON, NZ (CelebrityAccess) — Apple Corps Ltd. and WingNut Films Ltd are teaming up with the noted director Peter Jackson to restore never before released footage of the Beatles in the studio during the recording of their seminal album Let It Be.
The documentary will feature the Beatles during one of their most innovative periods in January 2nd and January 31st, 1969 and which captures the band in their final year before they parted ways.
The footage was originally intended to be used as part of a television documentary, but transformed with the band’s famed performance on the roof of Apple’s Savile Row London office in 1969. While the Beatles were extensively filmed during their heydey, this footage is the only known recording of the band at work in the studio, the documentary’s producers said.
“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,” Jackson said in a press statement.
While Jackson is best known for his direction on films such as The Fellowship of the Ring, his more recent work has involved archival footage. Last year, he released ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ which included contemporary archival films from world war one that had been colorized and transformed with modern production techniques.
For his work on the Beatles film, he’s teaming up with his They Shall Not Grow Old partners, Producer Clare Olssen and Editor Jabez Olssen. The footage will be restored by Park Road Post of Wellington, New Zealand, using techniques developed for They Shall Not Grow Old.
The yet-untitled Beatles doc is currently in production and producers have not announced a release date for it. Following the release of this new film, a restored version of the original Let It Be movie directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg will also be made available.
