More and more biopic filming leaks are coming out lately and I’d like to ask: which anecdotes/stories of John&Paul would you like to be adapted to the screen and why? Though I’m sure there won’t be anything groundbreaking, personally I'm thinking "It's only me" scene is in the cards because Paul mentioned it so many times over the years and apparently they were filming an argument scene.
Good question! I honestly haven't given the biopics too much thought because I don't expect them to portray John and Paul's relationship nearly as intense and complicated (besides their creative rivalry) as it really was. But I do hope they include at least some emotionally loaded scenes (like the "It's only me" moment you mentioned) that, even if they're not clearly romantic, are at least ambiguous enough to leave the audience curious about their relationship.
I hope they show the Paris trip, the whole John-Paul-Stu triangle, and even if they don't openly suggest any "romantic jealousy," I hope they at least hint that some of the bad blood between Paul and Stu was over John's friendship, and not just the fact that Stu was a poor bass player. I'd also love to see scenes of John and Paul sitting across from each other during their famous "eyeball to eyeball" songwriting sessions, as John himself described them. They probably won't, but if there's one single anecdote I wish they would bring to life, it would be the Key West "night we cried" scene, especially given how often Paul has mentioned it over the last decade. Just imagine them hugging each other in a hotel room at night, drunkenly telling each other, "I love you," over and over again...😭 I'd also like them to show John and Paul being especially close in 1967, with John spending a lot of time at Paul's house, as well as the night they took LSD together. I really hope they portray the clear correlation between Paul's wedding to Linda and John's marriage to Yoko; that they directly show how they spurred each other into marriage, especially John, because it's very well documented how desperately he wanted to get married as soon as he heard the news. I'm also very interested in how they portray the John-Paul-Yoko dynamic. Of course, they'll show the tension that came from Yoko replacing Paul as John's new creative partner, as most biographies describe it, but I hope they hint that the tension went deeper than that, however subtly. I don't really care how they do it, just that it doesn't come across as Paul simply being annoyed that Yoko was always in the studio, or that it was purely about professional and creative differences. I'm also looking forward to seeing how they portray Paul and Jane, and especially how Jane perceived John, because she explicitly said in Hunter Davies' biography that she was jealous of Paul's relationship with John. I really hope they hint at that (and now that I think of it, I'm really curious about how they will portray John and Brian's relationship and their trip to Spain...). I'm almost sure they won't include this, but it would be nice if they showed a scene where John lets Paul know that Jealous Guy was about him, as well as the showing the "old estranged fiancée" comment John made onstage. As for the rest of the '70s, I just hope they imply that some of the songs (other than the obvious Dear Friend, Too Many People and HDYS) they wrote during that decade were about each other: I Know (I Know), Call Me Back Again, Let Me Roll It, and maybe even Now and Then, since Paul has publicly said he likes thinking the song was about him. I think showing all of that—the songs, the jealousy dynamics, the "It's only me, I love you" moment, the "night we cried"—could be done in a way that doesn't scream romance right away, but still leaves the audience interested and curious about their relationship. I would be happy as long as it's portrayed as something that went beyond the old narrative of them just being bandmates/songwriting partners who had creative rivalry, and business disagreements, which is still how much of the general public sees them. I hope the films establish just how important they were to each other for over a decade, making it clear just how much they loved each other, and give us glimpses of how intense their relationship was. And who knows, maybe they could even include a few scenes where they look at each other lovingly—or at least ambiguously—for just a second too long. Nothing overtly romantic, just enough for it to stand out.
Also, something just came to mind while writing this. It would be hilarious if they included people around them teasing them about their "friendship". Something like the "John's Princess" nickname, or just the studio/apple staff joking about how close they were. But I know they likely won't, and they almost certainly won't include John's infamous tape, where he was just saying Paul's name over and over . But just imagine them portraying everything Yoko said in Philip Norman's book. That would be wild. I can already imagine a lot of Beatles fans who have never heard that bit of lore staring at the screen in complete disbelief (or even getting offended, as I know many of them would), only to look it up afterwards and realize it wasn't something the screenwriter invented 🫠.
