Barry Keoghan is set to play Ringo Starr on screen, according to the drummer himself.
In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Starr has confirmed that the Oscar-nominated star of The Banshees of Inisherin and Saltburn will be playing him in Sam Mendes’s ambitious new set of films about the Beatles.
“I think it’s great,” the 84-year-old said when asked for his thoughts on Keoghan’s alleged casting. “I believe he’s somewhere taking drum lessons, and I hope not too many.”
The four films, from the director of American Beauty and 1917, will be from each band member’s perspective. “I’m honoured to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies,” Mendes said.
Life and music rights has been provided by surviving members and the estates of their deceased bandmates. Despite this, the producer Pippa Harrison has claimed that there is “nothing off limits and no sense of the band wanting him to tell a particular ‘authorised’ version of their rise to success”.
Keoghan followed up acclaimed performances in The Killing of a Sacred Deer and American Animals with an Oscar-nominated performance in The Banshees of Inisherin.
He has since starred in Emerald Fennell’s divisive thriller Saltburn and is now starring in Andrea Arnold’s Bird. His next roles include the psychological thriller Hurry Up Tomorrow alongside The Weeknd and the much-anticipated Peaky Blinders movie.
No casting has been officially confirmed as yet but many names have been discussed, including that of the Gladiator II star Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney. “I would love to be involved, but there’s nothing set in stone,” Mescal recently told GQ.
The Triangle of Sadness actor Harris Dickinson has also been rumoured to be playing John Lennon. “There’s nothing I can say about that,” he recently told Dazed. “It might not be true, it might be, I don’t know ... there’s a speculation culture.”
The films will all be released in 2027.
