Beatles, Sam Mendes’ films also have female performers

Sam Mendes’ ambitious four-part film about the Beatles, about whom very little news has so far filtered out, fueling fan speculationafter the announcement of the names of the actors who will play the four Fab Four, which dates back to last April, now also has the names of the actresses who will play the four main female roles.

Mia McKenna-Bruce will play Maureen Cox, with Saoirse Ronan as Linda Eastman, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono and Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd.

Each of the four real-life women played a significant role in the history of the Beatles.

Maureen Cox met Starr when she was a 15-year-old trainee hairdresser in 1962, at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, before the outbreak of Beatlemania; they married in 1965 but divorced 10 years later.

Linda Eastman was a photographer who first met Paul McCartney in 1967; they married in 1969, she joined Wings and performed regularly with him until his death in 1998.

Yoko Ono, artist and musician, met John Lennon in 1966; they married in 1969 after Lennon divorced his first wife, Cynthia, and remained together (though through ups and downs) until Lennon’s death in 1980.

Pattie Boyd, a fashion model, met George Harrison in 1964 on the set of the Beatles film “A Hard Day’s Night”; they married in 1966 and divorced in 1977 after she became the object of attention from Harrison’s friend Eric Clapton, who wrote “Layla” about her in 1970.

Mendes told “Variety”:

“Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures – and I’m thrilled that we were able to convince four of the most talented women working in film today to join this incredible adventure.”

Currently titled “The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event,” Mendes’ plan, announced last year, is to make four separate films, one for each member of the band.