BREUER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesA new biographical film focusing on the late John Lennon‘s romance with his wife Yoko Ono is slated to be directed by Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée, whose credits include Dallas Buyers Club, Wild and the HBO series Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects.
Deadline reports that Universal Pictures is negotiating to option the rights to the movie, which will feature a script penned by Anthony McCarten, who co-wrote the upcoming Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and wrote the screenplays for Darkest Hour and The Theory of Everything.
Ono will co-produce the as-yet-untitled flick, along with Vallée, McCarten and others. According to Deadline, Vallée passed on an opportunity to direct the next James Bond film to take on the Lennon-Ono project. He will rewrite the next draft of the flick with McCarten, with an eye on starting production on the movie by late 2019.
One of the film’s co-producers, Michael DeLuca, notes that with Yoko involved in the production, “we’ll have access to the [Lennon] estate and the library of songs.” He adds, “I’ve been listening to John’s songs forever, but as we developed the movie, I became aware of just how profound the emotional impact of the music and their legacy is on me.”
Lennon met Ono in 1965 or ’66, at the height of John’s fame with The Beatles and when Yoko was establishing herself as an avant-garde artist. Lennon left his first wife, Cynthia, for Yoko, and the couple married in 1969, and also became lifelong musical and artistic partners.
The producers say the movie will focus on celebrating the couple’s dramatic journey together, but will stop short of Lennon’s December 1980 murder at the hands of a deranged fan.
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