The Fifth Beatle, a biopic about Epstein's rise from shop assistant to manager of the biggest group in the world, will be the first feature film to include Beatles hits

A new biopic of Beatles manager Brian Epstein will be the first feature film about the Fab Four ever to win rights to use the iconic British band's original songs, according to Deadline.

Titled The Fifth Beatle, the film will document the life of Epstein from his discovery of the Liverpudlian group to his death by accidental overdose in 1967 at the age of 32. The biopic's screenplay is by Tony award-winner Vivek J Tiwary (Green Day's American Idiot, Mel Brooks' The Producers) and the film will be produced by American Beauty's Oscar-winning Bruce Cohen.

Epstein was the closeted gay Liverpudlian entrepreneur who brought the Fab Four to the public's attention. Starting out in the music business by selling records from his father's appliance store in Liverpool, he heard the Beatles on his lunch break at the Cavern Club and relentlessly pursued a record deal with EMI once installed as the quartet's manager.

Epstein said of his experience watching the Beatles for the first time: "I was immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humour on stage – and, even afterwards, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that, really, it all started."

The Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images

There have been efforts to bring Epstein's story to the big screen before, but a planned biopic based on a screenplay by Tony Gittelson floundered in 2009. The manager was played by David Angus in 1991's The Hours and Times, a fictional retelling of a holiday Epstein took with John Lennon (Ian Hart) in 1963. Hart also played Lennon in 1994's Backbeat, about the band's early days performing in Hamburg, in which Epstein was not a major character.

Neither film was able to use original Beatles recordings, with Backbeat famously wheeling on alternative rock musicians of the day to record covers of tracks by other artists that the band would have performed in Hamburg. The Beatles recently granted permission for their music to be used in a documentary about their longtime secretary, Freda Kelly. Four of the band's tunes were revealed to have been licensed for Good Ol' Freda in February. Director Ryan White will be able to use Love Me Do, I Saw Her Standing There, and two other tracks. He required the approval of Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, plus the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison for the unprecedented move.

The Fifth Beatle, with a title borrowed from Paul McCartney's moniker for Epstein, has stolen a march on every Beatles biopic that has gone before it, if Deadline's report is correct. The film is due to shoot in 2014.

Meanwhile, McCartney's own children's book High in the Clouds is to form the basis of a new 3D animated film. The tale of a squirrel's quest to find a fabled animal sanctuary called Animalia, the big screen version will feature several original songs from the former Beatles bass player and singer. Mulan's Tony Bancroft, will direct the feature from a screenplay by Shrek Forever After's Josh Klausner, according to Variety. The film will be released in 2015.

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