Michael Winterbottom to Direct New Film About Beatles’ Final Days

Michael Winterbottom, the prolific British filmmaker who has made several acclaimed movies, including Welcome to Sarajevo, Wonderland and 24 Hour Party People, is preparing to direct a feature about the final years of The Beatles.

To be entitled “The Longest Cocktail Party,” the film will track the Beatles’ spectacular career from the formation of the Apple label through the band’s bitter break-up in 1970.

The film will based on a 1973 book of the same name by former Beatles’ employee Richard DiLello, an American who eventually rose to the position of director of public relations at Apple.

Winterbottom’s production company Revolution Films will make the movie in tandem with Liam Gallagher's film company, In 1 Productions, which owned the rights to DiLello’s memoir.

Gallagher, former member of British pop group, Oasis, is a renowned Beatles fanatic.

Gallagher’s company had actually announced last year the film would be made.

At that time, a spokesman for In 1 Productions told the press: This will be a film with humour and affection, providing an insider's look at what it meant to be a young man caught up in the wild swirl of the music business, celebrities and the tail end of the swinging 60s in London.

Andrew Eaton, co-founder of Revolution Films, told The Playlist blog that film’s script was written by comedy writer Jesse Armstrong.

Eaton described the Beatles’ film as one of my passion projects,” but described the difficulty of obtaining rights to songs from Apple.

He told Playlist: We're doing a bit of a dance at the moment, we haven't really found a way to make it work.”

Eaton added that Gallagher is great to work with because he wants everything to happen tomorrow.

Gallagher reportedly wants actor Johnny Depp to play the pivotal role of Apple press officer Derek Taylor in the movie.

Eaton commented that Depp would be great but noted that Taylor was from Liverpool, and he [was] probably 32 or 33 [during the time the story takes place], whereas Johnny Depp is 48 or something, and American.