The Rolling Stones and The Beatles have long been rivals, and now they are set to compete again—this time in cinemas. The Beatles are currently having four biopics made by Sam Mendes, and Mick Jagger does not want to be outdone. He has devised a unique way to tell The Stones' story on film.
When asked if he is open to making a film about his band, Jagger replied: “Yeah, it interests me. I don’t want to impart it to you, but, I know how I see it. There’s lots of ways of doing biopics.”
Jagger's Vision for a Rolling Stones Biopic
Rather than making four or five films about each member, Jagger admired the Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown, which focused on a particular era. He told GQ: “So most of the time when you do a biopic, you do one small section of someone’s life bookended by some other stuff. Take the Bob Dylan movie. You do the moment when Bob went electric.”
“You’d have to think, what are you going to zero in on? And where’s your two years of interest? I mean that Bob Dylan one was two years, [the] James Brown one that I produced was slightly more.”
Which Era Would The Stones Focus On?
When asked which period The Stones might focus on, Jagger said: “I don’t know which section, because it’s a long period.” Regarding who might play him, he replied: “No.”
New Album and Paul McCartney Collaboration
The new Stones album Foreign Tongues lands on July 10, featuring a collaboration with Beatles legend Paul McCartney. Jagger said he is a fan, adding: “He was always the polite one. John and I were the closest friends, but he's the most acerbic one, and George was sort of quiet, but can be very needly, you know. And Ringo is Ringo.”
“But I've always had a good relationship with Paul. We've always been friends. But funny, strangely, I've never played bass with him before those sessions.”
Historical Collaboration
Besides their collaboration on Hackney Diamonds in 2023, Jagger sang with Paul and John on a Stones song in the late 1960s. He recalled: “I remember doing it in Olympic [Studios, in Barnes, London]. We wanted a lot of harmonies, and they were around and said, 'We'll do them, man.'”
“We’d hang out quite a lot. But we wouldn't do a lot of work together. It wasn't like now, [when] everyone does features on everyone's records. It didn't happen so much then.”
“Of course, there were duets and everything, but now it's much more… features are something you do all the time. I mean, it wasn't made a big deal of [back then].”
