Beatles Manager Brian Epstein Gets Film Treatment

Photo courtesy MPTVImages.com

Producer David Permut (Youth in Revolt, Charlie Bartlett) has acquired the script for A Life in the Day, about Beatles manager Brian Epstein.

Paul McCartney once claimed, "If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian." Epstein, their manager from 1961 until his death in 1967, is credited with discovering the band and then relentlessly pitching their sound to any studio who would listen. He coached the foursome to lose their leather-clad, carousing rock 'n' roll image for the clean-cut suits and ties of their early days.

Epstein was a gay Jewish man from Liverpool who started out selling records in his father's music store. He frequented Liverpool's Cavern Club, where he first saw the Beatles perform. He died of a drug overdose in 1967 at the age of 32, and fans have always speculated that he was the glue that held the Beatles together. Within three years of his death, the group had officially separated.

A Life in the Day, written by Tony Gittelson, will focus on the very early days of the Beatles. No release date has been set. Announcement of the film comes in the midst of a flood of Beatles products, including The Beatles: Rock Band, a remake of Yellow Submarine, and several reissued albums due out next week.

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