Beatles 1970 movie "Let It Be" will be on Disney+ 5/8

[elvis4life]

https://press.disneyplus.com/https:/press.disneyplus.com/news/let-it-be-streaming-may-8

DISNEY+
"Let It Be" - At Last
April 16, 2024

Michael Lindsay-Hogg's Original 1970 Film About The Beatles, Meticulously Restored by Peter Jackson's Team at Park Road Post Production to Launch Exclusively on Disney+ May 8, 2024

Link to Official Poster: https://app.box.com/s/tvgc598cgw4o26vlxsyc36v3uf8qbvf3

BURBANK, Calif. (April 16) – Today, Disney+ announced that “Let It Be,” director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 film about The Beatles, will launch exclusively on Disney+ May 8, 2024. This is the first time the film is available in over 50 years.

First released in May 1970 amidst the swirl of The Beatles’ breakup, “Let It Be” now takes its rightful place in the band’s history. Once viewed through a darker lens, the film is now brought to light through its restoration and in the context of revelations brought forth in Peter Jackson’s multiple Emmy Award®-winning docuseries, “The Beatles: Get Back.” Released on Disney+ in 2021, the docuseries showcases the iconic foursome’s warmth and camaraderie, capturing a pivotal moment in music history.

“Let It Be” contains footage not featured in the “Get Back” docuseries, bringing viewers into the studio and onto Apple Corps’ London rooftop in January 1969 as The Beatles, joined by Billy Preston, write and record their GRAMMY Award®-winning album Let It Be, with its Academy Award®-winning title song, and perform live for the final time as a group. With the release of “The Beatles: Get Back,” fan clamour for the original “Let It Be” film reached a fever pitch. With Lindsay-Hogg’s full support, Apple Corps asked Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production to dive into a meticulous restoration of the film from the original 16mm negative, which included lovingly remastering the sound using the same MAL de-mix technology that was applied to the “Get Back” docuseries.

Michael Lindsay-Hogg says, “’Let It Be’ was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970. One month before its release, The Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see ‘Let It Be’ with sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see The Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again,’ and it very much darkened the perception of the film. But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs? And then you get to the roof, and you see their excitement, camaraderie, and sheer joy in playing together again as a group and know, as we do now, that it was the final time, and we view it with the full understanding of who they were and still are and a little poignancy. I was knocked out by what Peter was able to do with ‘Get Back,’ using all the footage I’d shot 50 years previously.”

“I’m absolutely thrilled that Michael’s movie, ‘Let It Be,’ has been restored and is finally being re-released after being unavailable for decades,” says Peter Jackson. "I was so lucky to have access to Michael’s outtakes for 'Get Back,’ and I’ve always thought that ‘Let It Be’ is needed to complete the ‘Get Back’ story. Over three parts, we showed Michael and The Beatles filming a groundbreaking new documentary, and ‘Let It Be’ is that documentary – the movie they released in 1970. I now think of it all as one epic story, finally completed after five decades. The two projects support and enhance each other: ‘Let It Be’ is the climax of ‘Get Back,’ while ‘Get Back’ provides a vital missing context for ‘Let It Be.’ Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly helpful and gracious while I made ‘Get Back,’ and it’s only right that his original movie has the last word...looking and sounding far better than it did in 1970.”

“Let It Be,” directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, stars John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, with a special appearance by Billy Preston. The film was produced by Neil Aspinall with The Beatles acting as executive producers. The director of photography was Anthony B Richmond.

“Let It Be” will debut exclusively on Disney+ May 8, 2024.

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ABOUT APPLE CORPS LTD.
Apple Corps Ltd. was founded by The Beatles in 1968 to oversee the band’s own creative and business interests. As part of its management of The Beatles’ entire intellectual property canon, the London-based company administers the legendary band’s recorded catalog along with film, theatrical, and book publishing rights. Apple Corps has piloted innovative, award-winning Beatles projects which have become benchmarks for pioneering accomplishment, including The Beatles Anthology TV series, book and music collections; The Beatles 1; Special Edition releases for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (‘White Album’), Abbey Road, Let It Be, and Revolver; 2023’s chart-topping “Now And Then” single; The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil®; SiriusXM’s The Beatles Channel; The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, directed by Ron Howard; “The Beatles: Get Back” docuseries, directed by Peter Jackson; and the ‘Get Back’ book. www.thebeatles.com

ABOUT PARK ROAD POST PRODUCTION
Park Road Post Production is an internationally renowned post-production house offering full Picture, Sound and VFX services – built for filmmakers, by filmmakers. Located in Wellington, New Zealand, its all-inclusive post-production facilities include world-class re-recording theatres equipped with Avid S6 consoles and Dolby® Atmos™, state-of-the-art 4K Dolby® Vision™ 6P laser projectors, and the latest Lasergraphics Director 10K film scanner. Benefitting from working relationships with some of the industry’s best post-production creatives, Park Road offers the talent and technology to bring any request to reality. Park Road Post prides itself on creating an environment that fosters the creative process. The award-winning team brings a wealth of experience and a quality of service second to none. Park Road Post Production’s recent restoration and remastering credits include “The Beatles: Get Back,” “The Abyss,” “Avatar,” “Titanic,” “The Lord of The Rings” Trilogy, “The Hobbit” Trilogy, and “They Shall Not Grow Old.”

ABOUT DISNEY+
Disney+ is the dedicated streaming home for movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic, along with The Simpsons and much more. In select international markets, it also includes the general entertainment content brand, Star, and in the U.S., Disney Bundle subscribers can also access extensive Hulu content, including next day TV and Hulu Original titles, on Disney+. The flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service from Disney, Disney+ offers an ever-growing collection of exclusive originals, including feature-length films, documentaries, live-action and animated series, and short-form content. With unprecedented access to Disney’s long history of incredible film and television entertainment, Disney+ is also the exclusive streaming home for the newest releases from The Walt Disney Studios. Disney+ is available as a standalone streaming service, as part of the Disney Bundle in the U.S. that gives subscribers access to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, or as part of Combo+ in Latin America with Star+, the standalone general entertainment and sports streaming service in the region. For more, visit disneyplus.com, or find the Disney+ app on most mobile and connected TV devices.

MEDIA CONTACT
DISNEY+ GLOBAL PUBLICITY
Derek Del Rossi
Derek.Del.Rossi@disney.com

https://variety.com/2024/music/news/beatles-let-it-be-film-restored-apple-streaming-1235972289/

Apr 16, 2024 6:01am PT
Beatles’ 1970 ‘Let It Be’ Documentary, Out of Circulation for Four Decades, Headed to Disney+ After Restoration by Peter Jackson’s Team

By Chris Willman

For decades, the attitude toward the documentary “Let It Be” in the Beatles‘ camp seemed to be: Let it rest in peace. But the film is finally going to be seen again. A restored version of the 1970 movie is coming soon to Disney+, the same service that brought fans “The Beatles: Get Back,” the 2021 Peter Jackson docuseries that used outtakes from director Michael Lindsay-Hogg‘s original film.

The documentary will re-premiere on Disney+ May 8, certain to be a red-letter day for Beatles fans who have spent most of their lives wondering if it would ever be let out of the vault again. Not only has the 1970 film been dusted off, but it’s been restored by Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production using the same technology employed to make the vintage footage in “The Beatles: Get Back” look and sound as revitalized as it did.

The original film has been notorious for being the one item in the Beatles’ catalog that Apple seemed to want to suppress rather than exploit. “Let It Be” has not been officially in circulation in any form since the early 1980s, although muddy-looking bootleg copies have been widely available. Those boots were lifted off VHS and laserdisc versions that came out in the early days of the home video revolution; the movie never made it to a release in the DVD era, much less Blu-Ray or streaming.

Jackson used hours of outtakes from Lindsay-Hogg’s footage to assemble “The Beatles: Get Back.” During the publicity campaign for that project, he repeatedly vowed that his fresh treatment of the material was meant to complement the original film, not forever supplant it, and that the original doc would eventually be seen again so that they could stand as companion pieces.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that Michael’s movie, ‘Let It Be,’ has been restored and is finally being re-released after being unavailable for decades,” Jackson said in a statement. “I was so lucky to have access to Michael’s outtakes for ‘Get Back,’ and I’ve always thought that ‘Let It Be’ is needed to complete the ‘Get Back’ story. Over three parts, we showed Michael and the Beatles filming a groundbreaking new documentary, and ‘Let It Be’ is that documentary – the movie they released in 1970. I now think of it all as one epic story, finally completed after five decades. The two projects support and enhance each other: ‘Let It Be’ is the climax of ‘Get Back,’ while ‘Get Back’ provides a vital missing context for ‘Let It Be.’ Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly helpful and gracious while I made ‘Get Back,’ and it’s only right that his original movie has the last word… looking and sounding far better than it did in 1970.”

During the campaign for “Get Back,” Jackson told Variety that he thought “Let It Be” had been unfairly characterized as depressing, partly because it came out immediately in the wake of the Beatles’ breakup, but also because the color scheme of the 16mm film, as released in 1970, had a dreary look that lent itself to a downbeat interpretation. “Get Back” had a more colorful look to it, and that seems likely to be true of what Jackson’s team has done with the original elements of “Let It Be” now, too.

Moreover, though, Jackson’s team has had a fresh crack at the audio of the 1970 movie. A press statement says that “with Lindsay-Hogg’s full support, Apple Corps asked Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production to dive into a meticulous restoration of the film from the original 16mm negative, which included lovingly remastering the sound using the same MAL de-mix technology that was applied to the ‘Get Back’ docuseries.”

Lindsay-Hogg sounded his approval of the new efforts in a statement. “’Let It Be’ was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970,” he recalled. “One month before its release, the Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see ‘Let It Be’ with sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see the Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again,’ and it very much darkened the perception of the film. But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs? And then you get to the roof, and you see their excitement, camaraderie and sheer joy in playing together again as a group and know, as we do now, that it was the final time, and we view it with the full understanding of who they were and still are and a little poignancy. I was knocked out by what Peter was able to do with ‘Get Back,’ using all the footage I’d shot 50 years previously.”

Lindsay-Hogg elaborated on the new restoration in an interview with the New York Times published Tuesday. “When Peter first showed me some restored images of the film, one was of a couple of the Beatles from the back, and their hair in the original looked very clumped,” the director noted. “Then he said, “Now let me show you what we’ve been working on.” It was the same shot, but you could see the individual strands of hair. The new version is a 21st century version of a 20th century movie. It is certainly brighter and livelier than what ended up on videotape. It looks now like it was intended to look in 1969 or 1970, although at my request, Peter did give it a more filmic look than ‘Get Back,’ which had a slightly more modern and digital look.”

It wasn’t just some viewers of the 1970 film but some of the Beatles themselves who seemed to take a dim view of its portrayal of some tense interactions during the making of what ended up being the “Let It Be” album. It will be interesting to see whether Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr might now offer a more positive assessment that is closer to Jackson’s latter-day praise.

Other restoration efforts had reportedly begun on the film in the 1990s and again in the 2000s, with an eye toward a possible DVD or theatrical release. Although the abandonments of previous restorations were widely ascribed to the disinterest of the surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney said in a 2016 interview that he was not the hold-up, and that he was encouraging of efforts to make the documentary available again.

[minkahed]

All I want is the physical property in my hands and I’ll be fine. It’s about time.

[r&b]

All I want is the physical property in my hands and I’ll be fine. It’s about time.

Hopefully there are plans for it. They did it for the Get Back marathon. I want to see the original film in pristine quality also

[LSP-4445]

Saw that it was in 4:3 format but really wish it was in same format as the Get Back documentary.