The Next Beatles’ Movie
“A Band on the Run”
A Screen Treatment
by Don Coorough
Introduction
This
feature film arises from a notion of creating a new “Beatles” movie. One might
ask, “How can there be a new Beatles movie with two of the members passed
away?” Would anyone be interested in a Marx Brothers movie without the brothers?
Would anyone be interested in a Humphrey Bogart movie without the real Bogey?
Well, ironically in 1972, Woody Allen made a movie he called “Play It Again,
Sam” in which a lookalike actor, Jerry Lacy, portrayed Bogart and the film
audience accepted him in the role. Indeed, in 1980, the movie “The Man with
Bogart’s Face” was made with Robert Sacchi starring as Sam Marlowe, the man
with Bogart’s face. That movie was accepted and enjoyed by the movie audience
of its day, and even the website DVD Verdict offers a review which suggests
the movie still stands up.
In
order to make a new Beatles movie, one would have to find lookalike-soundalike
actors to play the roles, all of who can act and will be believable, in
addition to having a script which is faithful to the era as well as the personas of John, Paul,
George and Ringo. There are certainly a lot of Beatle impersonator bands
performing throughout the US and Britain at this point. Several
movies have been made in the past about The Beatles which have used actors who looked
enough like The Beatles and who could sound like them, not just with their
singing voices but their speaking voices as well. Several successful
films exist of this type, including: “The Birth
of the Beatles,” “Beatlemania,” “The Linda McCartney Story,” and “Two of Us,” to name a few.
Additionally,
I feel it is highly valuable to point out how the band is currently
experiencing a huge revival of interest in them by a whole new generation of
young people. By providing this demographic new material which would be
available for the first time, but still utilizing music by the stars culled
from their solo careers, this movie would have a strong likelihood of being very
successful – indeed, it would likely end up being a summer smash.
In
order for the film to work, it would have to be a fictional romp in a style
reminiscent of “Help!” but which
would incorporate elements of their known lifestyles during the 70s. My idea is
to have the selected lookalike-soundalike actors who perform the roles of The
Beatles act in a story which might have been played by the musicians themselves
had they made another film together in the 70s after The Beatles had broken up. So,
the story must be written in a manner allowing it to be acceptable by current audiences as having been “possible”
in the 70s. It would have to be faithful to The Beatles’ personas, to the time period which it depicts, while also remaining within the general stereotypical formula used in The Beatles 60s movies, and it would
have to contain music by the guys from their solo careers.
Casting and Roles
Other
actors in the movie would also include lookalikes for Linda McCartney, James
Coburn, Alice Cooper, Christopher Lee, and Richard Nixon.
The
role for the Christopher Lee character would be the role of the villain, a
super villain who aims to take control of the world, reminiscent of the
arch-villains from James Bond movies. Lee conspires with Nixon who is his
primary assistant, as they intend to hold Paul McCartney for ransom. It is Lee’s
plan to extort money and power from the nations of the world. A ludicrous idea,
yes, just as was the idea of Ringo being sacrificed because of a particular ring
he received and wears on one of his fingers (the plot of “Help!”) and the plots of all the James Bond films.
The
James Coburn lookalike character would reprise, in a tongue-in-cheek performance,
the Derek Flint role Coburn portrayed in “Our
Man Flint” and “In Like Flint” as
he would be the action hero assisting John, George and Ringo in their quest to
rescue Paul. The Alice Cooper lookalike character would assist Derek Flint as a rock and roller who can also be a tough guy. Cooper would assist
Flint in helping to provide the muscle for the operation.
Premise of the Film
The
premise for the movie is fictional in the same way “Help!” was a fictionally premised movie.
Paul remains in Lagos,
Nigeria after completing the recordings for Wings’ “Band on the Run” album. He plans to meet with Linda McCartney (who
could be portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow) and the rest of Wings (none of whom
actually appear in the movie except at the end in a scene of Wings’ first
concert of the tour) back in England and to join them all as they leave on a
world tour in a couple of days. However, Paul must remain behind in order to
finish mixing the album first.
I
acknowledge that Wing’s first world tour did not occur until 1976 whereas the “Band and on the Run” album came out in 1973. This is not a mock documentary, so
details like that can be fudged without sacrificing the believability of the story. This is,
after all, a fictitious story and by giving it a bit of an over the top premise
(in the same way “Help!”was over the top in its premise and storyline), we
clearly find room for some license with an inconvenient detail like
there having been no Wings tour schedule right after the release of “Band and on the Run.” We will also combine songs from a variety
of the former Beatles’ solo albums, not culling material from a particular year.
The premise is for the movie to be set in a nebulous mid-70s year, anywhere
from ’73 to ’77.
That
night, after Linda has left via jet for England, Paul is kidnapped by
Christopher Lee, Richard Nixon and their goon henchmen. They hold Paul captive in
a run down, abandoned holding cell and send a ransom note to Linda. Linda
does not know where to turn or what to do. So, she contacts John, who in turn
passes the word on to George. George then informs Ringo, who is golfing with Derek
Flint and Alice Cooper, so he enlists them in the quest to save Paul as well.
The movie progresses from there as we follow the zany events encompassed by the
rescue.
The
songs I propose to use as music for the movie are all culled from the former
Beatles’ solo catalogs, songs taken primarily (though not exclusively) from the
1970s era. I suggest using the following songs for the John Lennon
contributions: “Instant Karma,” “Whatever Gets You through the Night,” “Mind Games,” and “Watching the Wheels.” I suggest using for the Paul McCartney tunes:
“Band on the Run,” “Hi Hi Hi,” “My Love,” and the live version of “Venus and
Mars/Rock Show.” The George Harrison songs incorporated would be: “Crackerbox Palace,” “When We Was Fab,” “My Sweet Lord,” and “Got My
Mind Set on You.” Finally, for the Ringo Starr songs, I suggest including:
“It Don’t Come Easy” and “Photograph.”
The Story
The
title and opening credits would appear during the opening sequence which would
be without music. The screen reveals Paul seeing Linda off at the airport as
she returns to England. Paul explains he should just be a day or two behind her
since mixing of the album would be completed soon. He suggests she get them
packed for the tour and asks her to make sure the rest of the band get ready
as well.
Paul
stands at a window and watches Linda’s plane take off. The song “Hi, Hi, Hi” plays as the jet takes off
into the sky and the credits continue. In a quick sequence of scenes, we see
Paul leave the airport, drive through some highway interchanges, then off the
highway and onto a dark, dirt road at dusk. The driver of an oncoming car seems
to be drunk and runs Paul off the road. When Paul regains consciousness,
he finds himself tied up and looking up at Christopher Lee. Paul says, “What’s
all this now?”
Paul
is imprisoned in a run down, abandoned, old shack of a holding cell probably
used for transporting illegal contraband for years. While in his cell, we see
him start the song, “Band on the Run,”
solo, on his acoustic – “Stuck inside these four walls / sent inside for ever /
never seein’ no one / nice again, like you, mama, you,” and during this part
he’s thinking and dreaming about Linda, so we see her in the next segment which
is then filled in with the sound of the whole band from the original recording.
When
Linda arrives home, there is a telegram waiting for her. It’s the ransom note.
Linda is to announce to the world that Paul has been kidnapped. The ransom
demand is to put all national governments under Lee’s and Nixon’s command. They will run the
world. “Only in this way,” the note says, “can world peace be guaranteed.” She is warned
not to go to the police. We hear Linda mutter, “I wouldn’t go to the police
anyway. All they’d likely want to do is bust me for marijuana possession.”
We
see John’s character introduced through the song, “Watchin’ the Wheels,” as a homebody daddy in love with Yoko, taking
care of Sean. At the conclusion of the song, Linda calls John to explain about the kidnapping. When John is
told of Paul’s predicament, John says, “Nobody messes with me mate,” and
promises to help.
George’s
character is introduced with the song, “My
Sweet Lord,” as living in Malibu, near enough to the beach to have an ocean
view and practicing his meditation. The setting suggests George’s character to
be spiritual and sincere. At the conclusion of “My Sweet Lord,” John gives George a call to explain about Paul’s
plight. George explains, “We can’t have Paul in the hands of anyone more
dastardly that he is himself, so count me in,” as he agrees to help rescue
Paul.
Ringo
is introduced with the song, “It Don’t
Come Easy.” We watch him playing golf with Derek Flint and Alice Cooper at
a golf course in LA. As we see the play on the first hole unfold, Alice tees
off first and hits a long drive down the fairway, a very good shot. Next up, Flint
hits one out into the fairway a good distance, but not as far as Alice’s drive
had carried. Then, up comes Ringo. He swings mightily at the ball. The club
does not hit the ball, but a breeze whipped up by the force of the swing does cause the ball to fall an
inch forward, just off the tee. Alice gives Ringo a pathetic shake of his head
and says, “I’ve seen better swings on a playground, Ringo.” Immediately thereafter,
George comes driving up on a golf cart and tells Ringo, Flint and Alice about
Paul’s kidnapping. Ringo agrees to join in the rescue saying, “Well, we can’t
have that now, can we? I mean, Paul might actually end up dead this time.”
Flint
becomes fascinated by the part about Lee’s and Nixon's characters wanting to take over the
world, so naturally, as a super-spy, he has to get involved. He explains, “Once
again the world is in trouble, and this time it needs me to extricate it,” then
turning to George and Ringo he continues, “and extricate Paul as well, of course.” Alice
wants in on the rescue too, saying, “We can’t let Paul remain kidnapped, it’ll
ruin his legend.”
So,
Alice and Flint join in with George and Ringo. They fly to New York to join up
with John, and then all five of them fly off to the airport in Lagos.
Upon
arriving, Alice and Flint lead a reconnaissance mission, as the others wait in their
rooms at the ready, to the song “Whatever
Gets You through the Night.” We watch Flint and The Coop go into bars, get
a lead on Lee and Nixon, and surreptitiously find their way to where Paul is being held as the song, “Crackerbox Palace” is heard in the soundtrack. We see
the spies locate the building in the compound where Paul is being held. As is historically the case with Flint’s character (from “Our Man Flint” and “In Like Flint”), he knows everything about everything. So, he
knows the history of the place, where the holding cell is located, and has an
idea for how to spring Paul from his captivity.
In
a change of perspective, we go back to Paul’s POV. We see him pining for Linda,
and her for him too. Both of them recollect certain special moments together
while the song “My Love” is heard on the soundtrack. When they
remember the same thing at the same time, they should be shot in the same scene
together in a split screen fashion but with each in their own set. They would set up the lead in to a kiss
which would not happen (they'd each kiss air) because the bubble of them being together in memory would be broken by their being apart and on separate continents.
We
see the boys put their heads together along with Flint and Cooper during the
song “Got My Mind Set on You.” They work
out the details of Flint’s rescue plan. Flint and Lennon will battle Lee’s
character while George and Ringo are to go straight to the building where Paul
is locked up so they can free him. They’ll have to fight off some henchmen in
order to pull it off. Alice is left with the task of fighting off Richard
Nixon.
And
then, to the song “Instant Karma,” we
watch the plan unfold as they do battle with Christopher Lee, Richard Nixon and
the other henchmen. However, things don’t go quite as planned. There are too
many henchmen, and Flint has to fight them off. Cooper is occupied with his
fight against Nixon. So, Lennon has to take on Christopher Lee alone.
In a battle against great odds, Flint takes out all the henchmen. Then, he is immediately surrounded by a bevy of beautiful starlets in bikinis, so he remarks, “I do enjoy the rewards that come from my work.” Alice Cooper takes out Richard Nixon in a fist fight (reminiscent of his fight with the Richard M. Dixon character, a Richard Nixon lookalike, who he staged a fight with during his 1973 “Billion Dollar Babies” tour). Alice remarks to himself, “I just gotta get myself a stooge like this guy for my next tour.” In
a great struggle of wills during the battle between Lennon and Lee we
hear the song “Mind Games.” This should be a surrealistic, way over the top struggle, complete with electronic machines which seem to derive power from Lennon’s and Lee’s minds, lots of costume changes, horror film cliches of closeups of their eyes, and all filmed in a kind of Frankenstein motif.
Paul
is freed by the others as they overcome his guards to the song, “When We Was Fab.” As Paul is rescued and
reunited with his former band mates, John turns to him and says, “You can’t
ever tell anyone about this you know.” Paul asks, “Why not?” John explains, “Do you want to kill all our solo records’ sales?People
will think we’re friends again, and they’ll wonder when we’re getting the band
back together.”
After
Paul’s rescue, they’ll all be whisked away to the site of Paul’s first concert
just in time for him to get on stage and play “Venus and Mars/Rock Show” as the opening number. Then, John, George
and Ringo would sit in as they’ll all play together on “Photograph.”