YOU’RE not seeing double, here’s a first look at the Beatles actors in character for director Sam Mendes‘ epic quadrilogy of the Fab Four.

Beatlemania may have conquered the globe, but it will be returning to its roots when crews roll into Liverpool to begin filming the Hollywood biopics next month.

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Barry Keoghan as Ringo StarrCredit: Sony Pictures
 

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Paul Mescal as Paul McCartneyCredit: Sony Pictures
 

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Joseph Quinn as George HarrisonCredit: Sony Pictures
 

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Harris Dickinson as John LennonCredit: Sony Pictures
And in a stunt to whet the appetite, postcards of Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison were left dotted around The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts campus yesterday.

A string of locations across the city will be transformed to recreate 1960s Merseyside as the films delve into the Beatles’ early years.

And the childhood homes of McCartney and Lennon will even form part of the sets.

Both 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton, where Sir Paul grew up with his younger brother Mike, and Mendips in nearby Woolton, where John lived with his Aunt Mimi, have been meticulously preserved by The National Trust.

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All four films will tell the story of the greatest band in history.

Director Sam Mendes

The homes now operate as popular museums, with tourists enjoying tours of the properties.

But both sites will be shut down entirely throughout three weeks of February and the first week of March to accommodate filmmakers.

Oscar-winner Mendes, who directed 2012 Bond movie Skyfall, has also been given permission to close several roads of dense terraced housing in Walton, north Liverpool, close to Everton FC’s former Goodison Park stadium, which remain largely unchanged since The Beatles’ early days.

The streets are just a few minutes’ walk from the former site of The Aintree Institute, a music venue the band played more than 30 times between 1961 and 1962, while establishing themselves as the area’s biggest and most promising act.

At the time it was not uncommon for gig goers to throw chairs at one another — and even at the band — during wild evenings billed as “sensational jive dances”.

The Beatles were once famously paid £15 in loose change for a gig there by local promoter Bill Kelly.

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The Beatles’ Let It Be album cover, featuring the real Fab Four of John Lennon (top-left), Paul McCartney (top-right), Ringo Starr (bottom-left) and George Harrison (bottom-right)Credit: Apple
 

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Paul McCartney’s family home, which will form part of the setCredit: Alamy
 

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The kitchen inside McCartney’s Liverpool homeCredit: Alamy
Their manager, Brian Epstein, was so furious over what he perceived as an insult that it became their final appearance at the club.

The venue was demolished in 2007, but the hall’s sister club, Lathom Hall in nearby Seaforth, which was also operated by Kelly, remains intact.

Set designers have already begun working on City Road in the area — with a second location on neighbouring Ripon Street set to follow shortly — wiping away all traces of modern life, including signs, satellite dishes and street furniture to create an authentic Sixties feel.

I just felt the story of the band was too huge to fit into a single movie.

Director Sam Mendes

Producers say the area will be returned to its current state by mid-March following three days of shooting.

Production will then move across the city to nearby Crosby, where The Beatles played a 1961 gig at the now-demolished Alexandra Hall.

Also featured will be Litherland Town Hall, which has since become an NHS walk-in treatment centre.

The imposing building, which hosted the band’s Welcome Home From Hamburg shows in 1960, cannot be shut down for filming internally due to its new medical use.

Ambitious scale

Instead, producers are planning to use remaining buildings from the period, taking over The Plaza cinema, a striking art deco theatre opened in 1939, which will be re-dressed to reflect the Merseybeat era.

Each of the four films, which are due for release in April 2028, will focus on a different member of the group.

Mendes explained: “Each one is told from the particular perspective of just one of the guys.

“They intersect in different ways — sometimes overlapping, sometimes not.

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John Lennon’s childhood home in LiverpoolCredit: Alamy
 

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Aimee Lou Wood, who will play Pattie BoydCredit: Getty
 

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The real Pattie Boyd posing in 1962Credit: Shutterstock Editorial
“They’re four very different human beings. Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply.

“But together, all four films will tell the story of the greatest band in history.

“I just felt the story of the band was too huge to fit into a single movie.”

There have been several recent projects revisiting the band’s work.

Most notable was Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson’s 2021 three-part documentary for Disney+, which ran to nearly eight hours.

In 2009, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Nowhere Boy dramatised John Lennon’s childhood and delved into his early relationships, while Martin Scorsese made a 2011 documentary detailing George Harrison’s contribution to the group.

But industry insiders say nothing has been attempted on such an ambitious scale as Mendes’ The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event.

Other big names signed up to appear include Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd and rising star Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono.

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Paul McCartney and John Lennon composing in Paul’s houseCredit: PA
 

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From left to right: Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as George HarrisonCredit: PA