Director Peter Jackson unveils sneak peek of upcoming documentary on The Beatles

A filepic from June 1966 of The Beatles during its concert in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: AFP

The Lord Of The Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson has revealed footage of his much anticipated Beatles documentary, The Beatles: Get Back.

The film was supposed to be released in September, but was postponed to 2021 because of Covid-19.

Introducing the film from his editing room, Jackson said: "This film was due to be finished around about now, but like the rest of the world, has been affected by the Covid pandemic.

"And so the only good thing really is that we are in the movie in New Zealand and now that our country has largely stamped out the virus, we were able to come back into the cutting room and carry on with the editing that we're doing."

Jackson said the film had access to 56 hours of never-been-seen footage of the band.

"And it's really great stuff," declared Jackson.

"I would say we're about halfway through the edit now, but because you've been so patient and the film has been delayed until 2021, we thought it was a good time to give you a little sneaky preview of what we've been working on and the sort of vibe and the energy that the film is going to have."

The filmmaker explained that the footage isn't a trailer – "Those will be coming out next year," he said – nor is it a sequence from the film.

"It's like a montage of moments that we pulled from throughout the 56 hours of footage that we have. And it just gives you a sense of the spirit of the film that we're making," said Jackson.

"Hopefully it'll put a smile on your face in these rather bleak times that we're in."

The Beatles: Get Back is a cheerful counter-narrative to the Beatles' 1970 swan song Let It Be film, which documented the group's breakup and is a rather downbeat experience.

It's brighter both visually and spiritually, with shots of the Beatles joking around, making fun of each other, singing in silly accents and generally indulging in vintage Moptop hijinks.

It also includes additional footage from the group's legendary 42-minute "rooftop performance" that caps the Let It Be film, which was their last live performance. – Reuters

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