A new Beatles book to accompany Peter Jackson's documentary on the making of Let It Be is due out next August, along with the long-awaited film.

The Beatles: Get Back contains hundreds of photos by Linda McCartney, Ethan A. Russell and others, plus text transcribed from conversations among the band members in the recording studio.

Jackson's film was initially slated to arrive this month, but was push to August 27, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The documentary gives an intimate new look at what went on behind-the-scenes of what is believed to be The Beatles' most-fraught studio sessions.

To make the film, the Lord of the Rings director Jackson was given access to 55 hours of footage from Michael Lindsay-Hogg's original Let It Be film.

Whereas the 1970 Lindsay-Hogg film seemed to depict The Beatles falling apart as a band and as a group of friends, Jackson says the hours of outtakes painted a very different picture.

"It would be fair to say that today Let It Be symbolizes the breaking up of the Beatles," Jackson said in a press release. "That's the mythology — the truth is somewhat different. The real story of Let It Be has been locked in the vaults of Apple Corps for the last 50 years."

Paul McCartney has admittedly wrestled with his role in the band's breakup and how common-knowledge conflicted with his own memories of Let It Be. Seeing the rest of the documentary footage and Jackson's film lifted a weight from his shoulders.

"It's great. I mean, I'm not bulls----ing," he told Howard Stern this past spring. "And you see this relationship between me and John [Lennon], me and George [Harrison], and you'll get it! ...It's so lovely for me because I had kind of bought into the idea that, oh, me and John were rivals and didn't like each other and stuff. But you see the film and it's like thank god it's not true. The guys, we're obviously having fun together. You can see we respect each other and we're making music together. It's a joy to see it unfold."

Photo: Getty Images

Bill Moran

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