From one Paul to another

Can Paul Mescal go from gladiator to Beatle?

SLOUGH, ENGLAND:

Paul Mescal has had an eventful 2024. Not only has he equalled (or surpassed) Russell Crowe as Hollywood's most infamous gladiator, he has also spawned a lookalike contest in Dublin and made headlines by selling clothes on Vinted to raise money for charity. And if all this wasn't enough, according to comments director Gladiator II Ridley Scott let slip, he has also been handpicked to play another Paul: the best-known bassist ever to have emerged from Liverpool, Paul McCartney.

As any Beatles fan will know by now, director Sam Mendes has taken it upon himself to give us four feature-length films about each band member: big-headed John, equally big-headed McCartney, gentle Geroge Harrison and the only drummer ever to be associated with yellow submarines: Ringo Starr. To achieve this ambitious goal, Mendes has received the blessings of McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as the families of John Lennon and George Harrison, all of whom have collectively handed over the life and music rights for a scripted film. Mendes plans to release all four films circa 2027.

Not quite the fab four

So what does all this mean? It means, for a start, that at least we will not have bog-standard elevator music plaguing these life stories. It also means that we are going to have four films about Liverpudlians without a single Scouser in sight – at least not in any of the meaningful roles. Mescal, you see, is not the only Irishman to have been roped into the cast. If Ringo Starr is to be believed, we also have Mescal's fellow Irishman Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) singled out to play the drummer. "I've heard he's somewhere out there taking drumming lessons," said Starr. "I hope not too many."

Meanwhile, according to Deadline, Londoner Joseph Quinn has been spotted lugging around a guitar as he shoots Fantastic Four, all but confirming rumours that Mescal's Gladiator II pal will play Harrison. And whilst no one has let anything slip about the Lennon casting in an unrelated interview (yet), Deadline has hinted that yet another Londoner, Harry Dickinson, will be playing the man who broke up the world's most famous quartet: Lennon.

With a group that had a whole obsession movement christened after them – Beatlemania – and 35 million listeners on Spotify, you are going to have fans absolutely brimming with opinions about a film based on their life. So the most obvious question is: will this casting consisting of young hot-blooded non-Liverpudlian eye candy work? If we are to pay heed to the woes of Beatles fans haunting Reddit, absolutely not.

"I really think they need to cast unknowns," wrote one commenter. "They need to scout heavily and find guys with similar features and authentic accents. Attaching any A-listers to this as the boys would be a mistake. Their features are so defined yet subtle, it's not as easy as slapping a moustache and fake teeth on Rami Malek and he's Freddie Mercury."

Mescal and Keoghan are hardly non-A-listers. Additionally, they neither look nor sound anything like the men they have been slated to portray, an issue other fans are finding difficult to swallow.

"I'm way too much of a Beatles fan to want to see other people impersonate them," notes a Redditor. "The actors don't look like them and I doubt they'll sound like them. I can't imagine what story they'll tell that hasn't already been told. I don't know if I'll even go see it."

Beatlemania will never die

It does rather beg the question whether the entertainment world has a Beatles-shaped hole that needs to be filled with four theatrical releases. In the past few years, we have had Beatles jukebox musicals Yesterday (2019) and Across the Universe (2007). The soundtrack for I Am Sam (2001) consisted entirely of Beatles covers. We have had director Ron Howard's documentary The Beatles: Eight Days A Week (2016), which followed the band's period as a touring prospect from 1962 to 1966. And if we want to stare down the biopics barrel, we have also had Nowhere Boy (2009), Sam Taylor's 2009 film depicting Lennon's teenage years. In other words, we have had a steady stream of Beatles-related screen content over the years.

Never feature films about their time as a band, though, which is the tree Mendes is barking up. And if 2024 box office figures made up almost entirely of sequels have strived to teach us, (Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Moana 2, Kung Fu Panda 4, Dune 2, Gladiator II), no filmgoer is ever going to turn away from familiar content.

So we have established that where there are Beatles fans, there will be Beatles film watchers, despite their avowed intention of avoiding the cinema when the time comes, in the same way that Disney fans cannot help but keep returning for reboots despite tutting heavily at a transparent attempt at cashing in on nostalgia.

Do not be quick to judge

As for Mescal and Keoghan's looks and accents, that may also not be quite the tragedy some have written it off to be, and we only need to cast our eyes to Ariana Grande to see why. Back when it was announced that Grande would be taking on the role of Glinda, a portion of Wicked fans who forever associated Grande with pop music and Nickelodeon collectively said, "Please no". All of those fans took back every mean thing they ever said about Grande from November 22 onwards after the first Wicked film was released.

Grande is not the only big name in recent times to have had misplaced misgivings attached to her name. None of us can picture anyone other than Cillian Murphy (yet another Irishman – maybe there is a pattern here) playing Birmingham crime boss Tommy Shelby, but there was a time when Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight certainly could. As the trivia section in IMDb tells us, Knight had the gravelly-voiced butch no-nonsense Jason Statham in mind for his beloved Shelby, and was in no way leaning towards Murphy, not even after meeting him, presumably because in his natural state, Murphy does not radiate ruthless crime boss vibes. Realising that Knight was being plagued by these unfortunate thoughts, Murphy did the future Peaky Blinders fandom a massive favour by sending a gentle note to Knight stating, "Remember, I'm an actor."

Can Mescal and Keoghan et al do for The Beatles what Murphy did for Shelby and what Grande did for Glinda? Without a crystal ball, there is no telling. But as Murphy so thoughtfully reminded Knight, we should placate ourselves with the knowledge that these men are actors who have (hopefully) been professionally trained to be able to impersonate people who are patently not themselves. Like gladiators, for example. Or bassists. Or drummers.