The music video for the forthcoming "final song" by the Beatles is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Peter Jackson.
Jackson, who directed the acclaimed 2021 documentary series, The Beatles: Get Back, assembled the video for "Now and Then" using archived footage of George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Despite his impressive filmmaking résumé that spans 35 years and includes multiple Oscars, "Now and Then" is Jackson's first ever attempt to direct a music video.
“When Apple asked me to make the music video, I was very reluctant – I thought my next few months would be a hell of a lot more fun if that tricky task was somebody else’s problem, and I could be like any other Beatles fan, enjoying the night-before-Christmas anticipation as the release of a new Beatles song and music video approached,” Jackson said in a press release.
“To be honest, just thinking about the responsibility of having to make a music video worthy of the last song the Beatles will ever release produced a collection of anxieties almost too overwhelming to deal with,” he added. “A Beatles music video must have great Beatles footage at its core. There’s no way actors or CGI Beatles should be used. Every shot of the Beatles needed to be genuine."
Both McCartney and Starr shot new footage of themselves for Jackson to use, which was in addition to more than 14 hours of new footage that was unearthed by the surviving members back in 1995.
“I found myself swept along as they quickly addressed my concerns," he continued. "Paul and Ringo shot footage of themselves performing and sent that to me. Apple unearthed over 14 hours of long forgotten film shot during the 1995 recording sessions, including several hours of Paul, George and Ringo working on ‘Now And Then’, and gave all that to me."
On top of that, Jackson received other footage from the family of both Lennon and Harrison, as well as the Beatles' original drummer, which he was able to include.
“Sean [Lennon, John’s son] and Olivia [Harrison, George’s wife] found some great unseen home movie footage and sent that," he explains. "To cap things off, a few precious seconds of the Beatles performing in their leather suits, the earliest known film of the Beatles and never seen before, was kindly supplied by Pete Best.”
The "Now and Then" video will make its debut worldwide on the band's YouTube channel this Friday (November 3), the day after the song is released.