Having presented a sweeping autobiography of sorts in “The Beatles Anthology,” nearly 20 years ago, Apple, the Beatles’ company, is returning to its archives. The company announced Wednesday that it will produce a new documentary focused on the band’s touring years. The film, which is as yet untitled, will be a collaboration between Apple, White Horse Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, and will be directed by Ron Howard.
“I am excited and honored to be working with Apple and the White Horse team on this astounding story of these four young men who stormed the world in 1964,” Mr. Howard said in a statement. “Their impact on popular culture and the human experience cannot be exaggerated.”
The period covered in the new documentary ended on Aug. 29, 1966, when the Beatles played what they had agreed among themselves – but had not announced publicly – would be their final live concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. A recording of that show, made by the Beatles press officer, has survived, as has some newsreel footage. Apple’s archives also include full televised concerts and live TV appearances, acquired during the compilation of the “Anthology,” from Sweden, England, France, Australia and the United States.
Apple has long hinted that it would release a home video version of the Beatles’ 1965 concert at Shea Stadium, which had been filmed for television, and in 1991 it produced a version of the film that differed in some ways from the original broadcast. (A copy of the 1991 edit recently turned up on the bootleg market.) But that film, as well as a revamped version of “Let It Be,” the 1970 theatrical release that documented the group’s tense early 1969 recording session, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg – both high on fans’ wish lists – have never been officially issued.
The Beatles’ company has expanded its archives in recent years, thanks to One Voice One World, a small company that has been soliciting film that fans (or their parents) took at Beatles concerts. The company brought its project to Apple, which briefly included its request for material on the Beatles’ website. Members of One Voice One World will be part of the production team for the new documentary.
Although material of this sort, usually filmed using hand-held 8mm cameras, might seem to be of little cinematic value in its raw form – the clips tend to be silent, jerky and short, and rarely capture complete songs – technology has made it possible to stabilize the images. And where the material is from a concert that had been broadcast on the radio (as quite a few Beatles shows were), the film can by synced with audio.
Apple experimented with this approach in the “Anthology.” In a segment devoted to the Beatles’ first American concert, at the Washington Coliseum on Feb. 11, 1964 – a concert that was professionally filmed in black and white – the company inserted some color fan footage, stabilized and synched with audio from the professional film. Even without contemporary audio, such clips can capture moments otherwise lost to history. The earliest known Beatles film, for instance, is a color clip, shot by a fan in February, 1962, before they began wearing suits and ties onstage.
