A new movie about the man who managed The Beatles unexpectedly shutdown this week and while there are a lot of details that are unclear, it appears, following a rather ominous announcement, that director Jonas Akerlund is now off the film and is likely to be replaced.
The movie, Midas Man, focuses on Brian Epstein, the man who acted as the Beatles manager from 1962 until 1967. The Queen’s Gambit’s Jacob Fortune-Lloyd stars as Epstein. Exactly what has happened to the film is being left vague, as a statement to Deadline has confirmed that while filming has currently stopped, it is expected to restart later this month, but the stoppage is due to the director “taking a break.”. The statement simply says…
The director of Midas Man Jonas Akerlund is taking a break from the film. Until some matters become clearer we are not able to add any further comment to this statement. In the meantime we can confirm that filming of Midas Man will continue in London in November before breaking for Christmas. Filming will restart in early January in Los Angeles.
The announcement is, at the very least, aware that it’s being very vague, but that doesn’t really help much. Exactly why the director has needed to step away from Midas Man, isn’t revealed, and while this says that filming will recommence soon, it’s equally unclear who will be in charge when it does.
Deadline has done some digging and claims that the reason that director Jonas Akerlund has needed to step away is not due to his health or any problem on the set. Instead, it’s connected to “other work commitments.” It sounds like there may have been some sort of scheduling issue more than anything. Discussions with a new director are apparently already underway.
Still, it seems that part of the situation isn’t even clear to the production itself, the statement says as much, so there might end up being more here. It’s all very strange.
The story of The Beatles has been told in film before, but Midas Man certainly has a unique take, telling the story from the perspective of Brian Epstein. Epstein became the manager of the Fab Four and is largely credited with helping to turn the band into the pop icons they became. Epstein died at the age of 32 in 1967 from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills.
This whole thing is certainly a very odd situation. Even in this era of pandemic filmmaking, when schedules have been more difficult than ever to maintain, you don’t usually hear of filmmakers in major positions having to step aside like this. If there is more to this story, we will almost certainly hear about it before too long.