Fact #97065
When:
Short story:
Pre-production work begins on the first movie starring The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night.Full article:
Walter Shenson (film producer) : At the time I made Hard Day's Night, I was living in London, having been sent there from Hollywood by Columbia Pictures. I was an executive for advertising and publicity for all their European productions. I left that job to become an independent producer, and I produced a few low-budget comedies in England.
Then United Artists asked me to produce a low-budget comedy for them starring The Beatles. They were very well known in England but not so in the USA. They had not done the famous Sullivan Show yet.
Anyway, UA had a record company, UA Records, and the reason they wanted this movie made is that they would wind up with a soundtrack album. Nobody at that time, at least none of the company executives, knew if The Beatles would last. Therefore, they didn't want me, as producer, to spend too much money, and to get it out quickly so that they had a soundtrack album while The Beatles were still hot. They left it up to me to produce whatever I wanted, and we came up with A Hard Day's Night.
We decided on a three-picture deal so that, if we all got along and if we could come up with the right material, The Beatles would make three pictures for me.
The budget on A Hard Day's Night was very low. It was about $500,000
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Then United Artists asked me to produce a low-budget comedy for them starring The Beatles. They were very well known in England but not so in the USA. They had not done the famous Sullivan Show yet.
Anyway, UA had a record company, UA Records, and the reason they wanted this movie made is that they would wind up with a soundtrack album. Nobody at that time, at least none of the company executives, knew if The Beatles would last. Therefore, they didn't want me, as producer, to spend too much money, and to get it out quickly so that they had a soundtrack album while The Beatles were still hot. They left it up to me to produce whatever I wanted, and we came up with A Hard Day's Night.
We decided on a three-picture deal so that, if we all got along and if we could come up with the right material, The Beatles would make three pictures for me.
The budget on A Hard Day's Night was very low. It was about $500,000