Peter Jackson to direct new Beatles documentary from Let It Be footage

The project will restore archive material filmed in 1969 as the band recorded last album

Following his successful first world war documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson has signed on to direct a second archive project: a film edited from the full 55 hours of footage of the Beatles’ Let It Be recording sessions.

A feature-length documentary, entitled Let It Be, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and culled from footage from the sessions as well as a celebrated rooftop concert in London’s Savile Row, was released in 1970 after the band had informally split up, but before Paul McCartney launched legal proceedings to dissolve the group.

Jackson is collaborating with the Beatles’ record company Apple, with the approval of McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison.

Jackson said: “The 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to us ensures this movie will be the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience … it’s like a time machine transports us back to 1969, and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together.” Jackson says the project will use the same film restoration techniques as were employed for They Shall Not Grow Old.

He added: “After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure trove … I’m thrilled and honoured to have been entrusted with this remarkable footage. Making the movie will be a sheer joy.”

Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be has long been out of official circulation since it was last available on home entertainment formats in the early 1980s. Attempts to reissue it since have never come to fruition; however, Apple said that a restored version will be released after Jackson’s edit.

The film has always held interest to Beatles fans as it documents the group at a time when tensions within the band were beginning to become obvious – including George Harrison’s decision to walk out after a few days of filming.

This incident was not included in Lindsay-Hogg’s film; the director was also instructed to cut other sequences that individual Beatles were unhappy with. Lindsay-Hogg later said the band’s verdict on his completed film was “mixed”, indicating their reluctance to reissue it.