Sean Lennon has jokingly suggested that Emma Stone should play his father John in Sam Mendes’ forthcoming biopics about The Beatles.
Lennon – the son of John and Yoko Ono – attended the Oscars on Sunday (March 10) and won the award for Best Animated Short for his project War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko. The film follows two soldiers on opposite sides playing chess while communicating with carrier pigeons.
On the red carpet, Lennon spoke about the four biopics Mendes is set to direct about each member of the iconic band, telling Variety that four movies was “the minimum you need” to cover the “epic story” of the Liverpool-formed pop band.
When asked who he’d want to see play his father, he joked: “I’m hoping that Emma Stone might consider it because she did such a good job in Poor Things.
“I think if you’re gonna reach that as an actor, the next obvious step is to really go for it and be John Lennon.”
Lennon also jokingly suggested that he could portray his mother Ono.
The films will be released from 2027 and will intersect to “tell the story of the greatest band in history.”
The project marks the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles – Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, along with the families of John Lennon and George Harrison – have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
It has also been promised that “the dating cadence of the films, the details of which will be shared closer to release, will be innovative and groundbreaking”.
The films will be produced alongside Mendes’ Neal Street Productions partner Pippa Harris and Neal Street’s Julie Pastor. Jeff Jones will executive produce for Apple Corps Ltd.
The Beatles have been the subject of a plethora of films and documentaries including the 1970 film Let It Be, which highlighted the Fab Four’s breakup and 2021’s The Beatles: Get Back, the series which documented the creation of their LP ‘Let It Be’.
In a five-star review of The Beatles: Get Back, NME shared: “It is precisely because of Get Back‘s lax editorial policy that it succeeds. You might not be able to say anything new about The Beatles in 2021, but Jackson hasn’t tried. He’s shown us instead.”