James Norton Is Brian Epstein in The Beatles Four-Film Cinematic Event

Sam Mendes is really doing it: four separate Beatles movies, one for each band member, all directed by him. And now, the guy who kept the whole circus running might have his actor.

James Norton is circling Brian Epstein

Deadline says James Norton (Little Women, Happy Valley, McMafia) is in talks to play Beatles manager Brian Epstein in The Beatles - A Four-Film Cinematic Event. Epstein will show up in all four chapters. How much screen time he gets in each is still a mystery, but he is a throughline whether you like it or not.

The lineup so far

• Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney
• Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr
• Joseph Quinn as George Harrison
• Harris Dickinson as John Lennon
• James Norton as Brian Epstein (in talks)
• Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney

A quick Brian Epstein refresher

Epstein first met the Beatles in 1961 at Liverpool's Cavern Club. He had zero background managing musicians, signed them anyway, and then steered them to EMI's Parlophone label. After that, the rocket took off and never really came back down. If Mendes is putting Epstein in every film, that tracks.

Linda McCartney joins the story

Last week, four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan signed on to play Linda McCartney. Linda was not just Paul's wife. She was a photographer, musician, and animal rights activist whose work in the 60s included portraits of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors. She became the first woman to land a Rolling Stone cover photo, married Paul in 1969, and later performed with him in Wings. She was a loud, early voice for vegetarianism and animal welfare, launched Linda McCartney Foods in 1991, and died of cancer in 1998.

Behind the camera

Mendes is directing all four films. His company Neal Street Productions is partnering with Sony Pictures Entertainment to make them. The writing team is stacked: Jez Butterworth (Ford v Ferrari), Peter Straughan (Conclave), and Jack Thorne (Adolescence) are on script duty. It is not clear yet if each writer is taking one Beatle solo or if they are tag-teaming across the entire set.

This is the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and the Beatles themselves - Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, plus the families of John Lennon and George Harrison - have opened the doors to both life-story and music rights for a scripted movie.

That last part is huge. It means these films will not be vaguely Beatles-adjacent with soundalike tracks. They can tell the actual stories and use the actual songs, which is kind of the whole ballgame.

Four films. Four perspectives. Epstein threading through all of them. If Norton locks in, the casting puzzle starts to look pretty sharp.