Paul McCartney says “new version” of Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ film is in the works

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Paul McCartney says “new version” of Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ film is in the works
Sam Moore
Sep 19, 2018


The Beatles Credit: Getty

The movie, which captured the making of The Beatles' final studio album, is set for a special anniversary re-release in 2020

Paul McCartney has indicated that the Beatles film Let It Be is set to be re-released in “a new version” to mark its fiftieth anniversary in 2020.

The film, which was originally released in 1970, documented the making of the legendary band’s final studio album ‘Let It Be’. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the movie also includes the iconic footage from January 1969 of The Beatles’ final-ever public performance on the rooftop of Apple Corps HQ in central London.

McCartney has now disclosed that there are plans afoot to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the film in 2020 with a special DVD/Blu-Ray release. However, McCartney has said that the “latest gossip” is that the re-release will feature a new edit of Let It Be based on never-before-seen footage.

“I think there may be a new version of it,” McCartney told DJ Yannick Tremblay during an interview with Canada’s Radio X (which you can listen to below) this week. “That is kind of the latest gossip.”





“We keep talking about [a re-release],” he said. “We have meetings at Apple, you know, the original Beatles Apple. And it’s one of the things you never quite know what’s gonna happen with it. So there’s no [definite] story at the moment. But I keep saying ‘what’s gonna happen?’, because people ask about it.

“I tell you what I think it’s gonna happen,” McCartney continued. “I think there may be a new version of it. That’s kind of the latest gossip. There’s a lot of footage, and the original movie came out, and it was really sort of about the break-up of The Beatles. And so for me, it was a little sad, the movie.

“But I know people have been looking at the [unreleased] footage; there’s about 56 hours of footage. And someone was talking to me the other day and said: ‘The overall feeling is very joyous and very uplifting. It’s like a bunch of guys making music and enjoying it’, you know. So I think there is some talk about making a new movie, re-editing it from the same period, from the same footage.

“We can make a new film out of it. So who knows, that may be happening in a year or two.”

Let It Be has not officially been available to purchase in any format since the 1980s. Plans for a DVD re-release of the film were shelved in 2008 following a request from McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Earlier this week, McCartney kicked off his ‘Freshen Up’ tour with a gig in Quebec.