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27th Nov 2024

Barry Keoghan confirmed to be playing one of The Beatles in new four-part biopic

Stephen Porzio

This comes as he has also been linked to a Shane MacGowan biopic.

Barry Keoghan has already got a wide variety of movies on the horizon.

His Irish crime thriller Bring Them Down last week was handed an Irish release date for 7 February 2025, while he will also appear in the upcoming films Amo Saddam, Crime 101 and Hurry Up Tomorrow.

That’s along with his much-anticipated role in the Peaky Blinders movie, his perhaps equally exciting return to the Robert Pattinson-fronted Batman franchise, as well as him being linked to an in the works biopic about Shane MacGowan.

But the Oscar-nominee has been confirmed to have another massive project in his future: playing drummer Ringo Starr in a series of movies about The Beatles.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall) would direct four theatrical feature films about the band widely considered the best in history.

Each of the movies will be told from one of the four bandmates’ point-of-view.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Starr himself was quizzed about the “landmark” project and the rumours that the Irish Oscar-nominee will play him.

In response, he said: “I think it’s great. I believe he’s somewhere taking drum lessons and I hope not too many.”

The four Beatles movies are set for release in 2027.

This month, meanwhile, Victoria Mary Clarke – widow of Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan – appeared on the Sunday World’s Under the Grill podcast where she was asked about the long in the works biopic of her husband.

In response, she told the show:

“We had worked on a movie long before he died and that’s still in the works.

“We did talk to Barry Keoghan about playing Shane and he’s keen to play Shane.”

As for who would play Mary Clarke in the film, she joked:

“I think it’d be really weird. Personally, I’m very vain so I would probably be very critical and be thinking: ‘Oh, they don’t look quite as good as I would want them to look’.”

MacGowan passed away last year on 30 November, 2023.

With his one year anniversary approaching, his widow did note that audiences may be waiting awhile for the biopic on the singer.

On the topic, Mary Clarke added: “I suppose, it’s a little bit soon for us to be thinking about that stuff.”

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