Yesterday
Everyone in the world has forgotten The Beatles. Everyone except Jack…
Yesterday (2019)
Production
Budget
$26 000 000
Revenue
$154 608 856
Director
Scenario
Jack Barth
Author
Composer
Producer
Actors
Himesh Patel
Jack Malik
Lily James
Ellie Appleton
Sophia Di Martino
Carol
Ellise Chappell
Lucy
Meera Syal
Sheila Malik
Harry Michell
Nick
Vincent Franklin
Brian
Joel Fry
Rocky
Short description
Yesterday follows Jack Malik, a singer-songwriter in a small English coastal town whose musical ambitions have gone nowhere despite the encouragement of his closest friend, Ellie. After a mysterious worldwide power cut and a bus accident, Jack wakes to find that the Beatles never existed and that he alone still remembers their songs. He begins performing that music as his own, and with the help of a determined manager he becomes a star, while the question of what this costs him, particularly in his relationship with Ellie, hangs over his rise.
Danny Boyle directed the film, the fourteenth of the seventeen features listed in his filmography, arriving between T2 Trainspotting and Free Your Mind: The Matrix Now. The screenplay is by Richard Curtis, who also produced alongside Boyle and Eric Fellner. Himesh Patel plays Jack, with Lily James as Ellie, and Sophia Di Martino, Ellise Chappell, Meera Syal and Harry Michell among the supporting cast.
Released in June 2019, the film combines comedy, fantasy, music and romance, with a budget of 26 million US dollars and a worldwide gross of 155 million. On IMDb it holds 6.8 out of 10 from around 184,000 votes; on TMDB, 6.7 from 4,366. A critics' rating of 6.4 from 366 reviews sits close to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The screenwriter and producer Richard Curtis asked Paul McCartney if he liked the film's title. McCartney replied affirmatively, but jokingly suggested calling the film "Scrambled Eggs." Previously, before writing the lyrics to the song "Yesterday," John Lennon (1940-1980) and McCartney used a humorous text as a draft.
- The film is set in Lowestoft, Suffolk. The Beatles played there in June 1963.
- The names of some of the film's characters echo those from The Beatles' songs – the character played by Joel Fry is named after the hero of “Rocky Raccoon,” Ellie is named after “Eleanor Rigby” from the song Jack can't remember, and Ellie's roommate Lucy bears the name of the lyrical heroine from “Lucy in the sky with diamonds.”
- At one point, Jack is referred to as the "Shakespeare of songwriting." Conspiracy theorists claim that the famous works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were not written by him.
- The main concert was filmed on the beach in Gorleston, Norfolk. Local residents were primarily selected for the extras.
- In the scene where Jack first performs "Yesterday," his friends claim that Coldplay sings it better. The role played by Ed Sheeran was originally intended for Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, but his filming schedule didn't allow it, so the role went to Sheeran, and the joking reference in the script was left in.
- The Beatles were not involved in the making of the film, apart from the use of their songs. According to director Danny Boyle, McCartney and Starr, as well as the estates of Lennon and Harrison, simply gave their approval for filming.
- Ed Sheeran's wife, Cherry Seaborn, played the flight attendant on the private plane.
- For security reasons, copies of the film were distributed to cinemas in boxes labeled "Polo".
- George Harrison is the only member of The Beatles who is not shown at all in the film. Alongside the scene featuring Jack and an aged John Lennon, there is also a dream sequence showing the legs of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. McCartney’s legs are shown without shoes, a reference to the cover of the album “Abbey Road” (1969). Lennon’s suit also serves as a reference to the same cover.
- Jack's debut concert on a hotel rooftop is a reference to the rooftop concert given by The Beatles on January 30, 1969.
- Towards the end of the film, Jack and his loved ones ride down a spiral slide, which was very popular at fairs in the United Kingdom and was called "Helter-Skelter." The Beatles also released a song of the same name in 1968.
- In the film, Jack is hit by a bicycle, resulting in a split lip and a broken front tooth. The same thing happened to Paul McCartney in Liverpool in 1966 when he fell off a moped.
- The filmmakers only needed permission from Sony/ATV Music Publishing to use The Beatles' songs, as Sony owns the rights to them, but they also obtained permissions from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison.
- One of the posters in Jack's room depicts the band The Fratellis. This is a reference to the film 'The Goonies' (Richard Donner, 1985), one of director Danny Boyle's favorite films.
- One of the ideas for the film was to make violet color one of the things that had disappeared from the world, and to briefly mention in the film that the band Deep Purple now goes by the name Deep Orange. This idea was abandoned – no one wanted to check every day before filming to ensure that no extras were wearing anything violet.
- Himesh Patel played the musical instruments and sang himself.
- Initially, a scene was planned for the film in which Jack meets George Harrison (1943-2001) and Ringo Starr in a pub. However, it was eventually decided that this episode would only diminish the impact of his meeting with John Lennon.
- According to director Danny Boyle, the film was supposed to use around 20 Beatles songs (permissions had already been paid for), but in reality, only 17 were used. Only attracting Leonardo DiCaprio to the film proved more expensive than using The Beatles' songs.
- At one point, Ed Sheeran suggests changing the lyrics of the famous song 'Hey Jude' to 'Hey Dude' (where 'dude' translates as 'guy'). The metal band Beatallica from Milwaukee (a combination of the names The Beatles and Metallica) once made a parody of 'Hey Jude' called 'Hey Dude'. This version was officially released on the 2007 album 'Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band' (the album title is a parody of The Beatles' 1967 album 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' with covers of Beatles songs in the style of Metallica).
- Besides The Beatles, the universe of the film “Yesterday” (2019) lacks Harry Potter, the band Oasis, “Coca-Cola,” and the entire concept of cigarette smoking. Furthermore, “Saturday Night Live” airs on Thursdays and is accordingly named.
- One of the film's scenes was shot in a tunnel in Birkenhead (a town in the county of Merseyside in the United Kingdom), where films such as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" (David Yates, 2010), "Fast & Furious 6" (Justin Lin, 2013), "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" (Kenneth Branagh, 2014), and the British television series "Bulletproof" were also filmed.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
