Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song is a 12-minute short film celebrating the historic release of The Beatles' final song, "Now and Then." The documentary, now streaming on Disney Plus and Max, features exclusive footage and commentary from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson.
The documentary's release is timed to the debut of the legendary band's final song, "Now and Then," which will drop at 10 am ET/7 am PT on November 2. The accompanying music video, directed by Jackson, will stream on Disney Plus beginning November 3.
Viewers in the UK got a special look at Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song thanks to an extended episode of BBC's The One Show.
Oliver Murray, who directed the documentary, talked about bringing the short film to life. "The legacy of The Beatles set one of the most important foundations for modern youth culture. It is a great honor to be given the responsibility of telling this story and I think it will conjure up a lot of different emotions for people as we all have a very personal relationship to the band’s work. Now And Then is a story of musical archaeology and a brotherly bond between four guys that gave the world some of the most popular entertainment in history."
The final song is one that had been heavily mythologized by Beatles fans. Paul, George and Ringo were going to include it in 1995's The Beatles Anthology but the technology didn't exist to lift John Lennon's vocals from his original 1970s recording. It wasn't until Jackson and his team developed a software system for The Beatles: Get Back that gave them the ability to separate the vocals and put "Now and Then" together.
Said Jackson of the journey creating the music video, "We wanted the music video to bring a few tears to the eye, but generating emotion using only archive footage is a tricky thing. Fortunately, the simple power of this beautiful song did a lot of the work for us. I have genuine pride in what we made, and I'll cherish that for years to come."
Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song is available to stream now on Disney Plus and Max.
