With Peter Jackson's epic three-part documentary miniseries The Beatles: Get Back currently celebrating its one-year anniversary, many fans have been wondering if more material from the famous sessions will be unleashed on the public. When it was put out on DVD and Blu-ray earlier this year, it only contained the same 468 minutes that’s available streaming on Disney+, with no extra footage or bonus material of any kind, so there’s been a lot of speculation about a possible extended future edition.
Jackson assembled Get Back from 60 hours of footage and over 150 hours of audio of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr working in January 1969. This would become Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary and the same-titled Phil Spector-produced LP, Let it Be. Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter journalist Kim Masters on The Business podcast that “there’s five or six hours of fantastic material that we didn’t include, and I don’t want it to go back into the faults for fifty years. So, let’s just say that it’s a conversation that’s happening, but it’s not necessarily a definitive one at this point."
In the same interview, Jackson explained that the prospect of an expanded Director’s Cut has been postponed for now because, “Disney and Apple are reluctant because they say - and they might be quite right - that there’s no market anymore for extended cuts.”
The Long and Winding Road to an Expanded Edition of Get Back
The Blu-ray/DVD, which is billed as the “Collector’s Set” despite there being no other version available, was the first Disney+ exclusive title to get a physical media release, and it may be the last as the studio doesn’t appear to see much money in the market anymore. But a rumored 18-hour version has whet fans' appetites and made them long for a Christmas release. The new product from The Beatles this season turned out to be the Revolver: Super Deluxe Edition instead.
While there are no reported plans to release any additional scenes from the Get Back sessions in the near future, the appearance on the horizon of more Beatles material shouldn’t be counted out for a couple of crucial reasons. First, there is always a market for new Beatles products. Every holiday season in recent memory has been graced by music, whether repackaged or previously unreleased, books, films, etc. by the Fab Four, and a Get Back: Ultra Special Super Duper Edition is a very likely entity in the years to come.
Secondly, Jackson’s follow-up project, a proposed film with the involvement of ex-Beatles McCartney and Starr (who co-produced Get Back along with Lennon and Harrison’s widows, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison, respectively), could possibly include the five or six hours of material Jackson spoke of. The news about Jackson’s Beatles sequel of sorts is very mysterious as the filmmaker has been very vague, like in his words to Deadline.
I’m talking to The Beatles about another project, something very, very different than Get Back. We’re seeing what the possibilities are, but it’s another project with them. It’s not really a documentary …and that’s all I can really say.
Sadly, the likeliness of another stand-alone edition of Get Back has also been threatened by weak sales for the first release of the miniseries. Roger Friedman of Showbiz 411 labeled the film “a dud” based on its poor numbers, and it being pretty pricey ($49.99 for the Blu-ray at the moment) hasn’t helped it move units either.
The Legacy of Not Letting it Be
In the year since the world got a bigger window into the Beatles’ world when they were on the verge of breaking up, Get Back has grown in stature. Not just as a critically acclaimed event documentary that swept the Emmys and a host of other award ceremonies, but as a vital viewpoint that re-shaped the narrative of one of the greatest creative forces in human history. Being privy to full conversations and musical performances that had only been documented and/or heard on bootlegs has allowed fans to witness what really went down on John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s personal paths to their solo careers, each of which is heavily foreshadowed throughout Jackson’s “documentary about a documentary.”
Jackson’s magnificent eight-hour version of The Beatles: Get Back, which is still streaming at Disney+, along with the multi-disc Let it Be: Super Deluxe Edition that was released to celebrate the album/film’s 50th Anniversary, contain more than enough stuff to keep fans busy for a long time with the particulars of the band’s breakup.
But both casual and hardcore followers can’t help but clamor for more. It’s just in the die-hard’s nature to want every last drop of that beautiful Beatles brew, and it really says something about the breadth and power of the iconic group that half a century later, there are still unseen/unheard goodies left to long for.