With friends like Ridley Scott, who even needs a publicist? In a candid moment between directorial demigods Scott and Christopher Nolan at the Directors Guild of America, the Gladiator II director let it slip that his latest leading man, Paul Mescal, would be “doing the Beatles next,” in reference to the actor working on the upcoming Beatles biopic from Sam Mendes.
Mendes’ ambitious four-part biopic series looks to tell the story of the Beatles from each of the four legendary band members’ points of view. Saltburn star Barry Keoghan was announced as the one portraying Ringo Starr by the Beatles drummer himself last month. A source connected to the production of the biopics confirmed with Variety that Mescal is attached to the project, although we don’t know which of the remaining three Beatles members he’d play. Mescal has been rumored to be attached to the biopic series since June, when reports circled of him playing Paul McCartney.
Scott may have let that truth bomb drop to preemptively quell any anger from fans who were expecting to see Mescal and Scott re-team for the director’s upcoming film The Dog Stars. Word of those two potentially working together again for that movie first went around last month. During his chat with Nolan, however, Scott remarked that shooting for the Beatles biopic could clash with production on The Dog Stars. “I have may have to let him go,” he admitted.
It would be a shame if the two don’t get a reunion after their blockbuster success with Gladiator II, a film we admitted wasn’t one of the Ridley Scott’s best efforts but was at least better than whatever Hannibal was trying to be. Still, if playing one of the greatest singer-songwriters ever forces Mescal to go through hours of training to learn how to sing some of the best songs from the 1960s like Timothée Chalamet did in preparation for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, then we can go a few more years without another Scott/Mescal movie.