George Harrison - The Movie

[Rob McCow]

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese plans to direct an authorised documentary about George Harrison, the former Beatle who died of lung cancer in 2001, Daily Variety reported on Thursday.

Interviews and early production will begin this year, and the film will take several years to complete, the trade paper said.

"It would have given George great joy to know that Martin Scorsese has agreed to tell his story," the paper quoted Harrison's widow, Olivia, as saying.

She will serve as a producer of the untitled project, and will supply archival materials. Daily Variety added that surviving Beatle members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr would participate, as would the Beatles' Apple Records label.

Scorsese, who won an Oscar this year for directing the crime saga "The Departed", is preparing for the April 2008 release of a concert documentary about the Rolling Stones, called "Shine A Light". He turned his attention to Bob Dylan in the 2005 documentary "No Direction Home", and depicted the Band's farewell concert in 1976's "The Last Waltz".

The Harrison movie will cover his time in the Fab Four, when he composed such memorable tunes as "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun", his inconsistent solo career, his foray into movie production with such projects as "Monty Python's Life of Brian", and his enthusiastic embrace of Eastern mysticism, Daily Variety said.

"George Harrison's music and his search for spiritual meaning is a story that still resonates today and I'm looking forward to delving deeper," Scorsese was quoted as saying.

Several years? That's just laziness. We'll be waiting in Blue Jay Way for this film.

[SiHart]

The Harrison movie will cover his time in the Fab Four, when he composed such memorable tunes as "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun"

This made me smile- they'll be covering that month in 1969 then, and nothing else?

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I'm going to be controversial and say it doesn't sound a very exciting film to me! He was a great composer, and very probably a lovely man. But it's also possible to be a quite uninteresting great composer and lovely man whose life wouldn't make a very thrilling film.

But perhaps I'll be proved wrong.

Si.

[Ralph]

Can I just add I'm not excited either?

[Wayne]

Are you ever?

[Ralph]

I wonder if it'll be better than "Hard Day's night"

[SiHart]

Hard Day's Night is great, IMO.

Si xx

[Ralph]

Are you ever?

It depends on the company

[Ralph]

Hard Day's Night is great, IMO.

Si xx

Si - you don't happen to have the complete set of Elvis Presley movies DVD collection by any chance?

[SiHart]

I'm not that insane Ralph! I do have the other Beatle films though... even the rubbish Magical Mystery Tour.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

There's a title that would lend itself to spoofing.

Si.

[SiHart]

I don't know who would do a thing like that Si.

Si xx

[Pip Madeley]

I look forward to the future PS audios: Yelp!, A Hard Day's Nick and One Of Us Is Yellow (Submarine).

[Dirk Gently]

One Of Us Is Yellow (Submarine).

Special Guest star Burt Kwok?