Amazon MGM Studios has picked up Man on the Run, the feature documentary directed by Morgan Neville that explores Paul McCartney’s creative rebirth after The Beatles’ breakup.
The move comes ahead of the movie’s premiere this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival.
Man on the Run, which is produced by Neville’s Tremolo banner, in association with MPL and Polygram Entertainment, will be released in select theaters and then hit Prime Video Feb. 25 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
The documentary is meant to be the centerpiece in a partnership between McCartney, Universal Music Group, and Amazon that will unfold over the next year. It includes the release of exclusive music and merchandise drops, and commentary from McCartney himself. And it will coincide with the release of his book, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, which will be available on Amazon and Audible Nov. 4, and McCartney’s Got Back tour dates across North America this fall.
Producers of the documentary include Neville, Chloe Simmons, and Meghan Walsh for Tremolo; Scott Rodger and Ben Chappell for MPL; and Michele Anthony and David Blackman for Polygram Entertainment. Executive producers include Caitrin Rogers and McCartney.
Man on the Run is described as taking viewers on an intimate journey through McCartney’s extraordinary life following the breakup of The Beatles and the formation of his follow-up band Wings with his wife Linda in 1971. The band, with its tumultuous member changes, hit a high with the 1973 album Band on the Run, with the title track and the song “Jet” becoming massive hits.
The film chronicles the arc of McCartney’s solo career as he faces down a myriad of challenges while creating new music to define a new decade.
Neville had unprecedented access to previously unseen footage and rare archival materials to tell the story of McCartney’s transformative post-Beatles era through a uniquely vulnerable lens.
The filmmaker, who made 2018’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, a documentary about Fred Rogers, has a long history of music-focused works. He tackled back-up singers with his 2013 film, 20 Feet from Stardom, which won the Academy Award for best documentary as well as a Grammy Award for best music film. Last year he showed off Piece by Piece, focusing on Pharrell Williams and told via Legos. Other subjects include Keith Richards, producers Rick Rubin and Mark Ronson, and Bono and the Edge.
The deal was brokered by Liesl Copland of MATR Labs on behalf of the filmmakers.