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The Fab Four’s iconic 60s movie Yellow Submarine is set to be re-made by Disney complete with The Beatles original soundtrack.
The 21st century update of the Mop Top’s animated adventure will be directed by Robert Zemeckis, the man behind Back To The Future, Forrest Gump and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Sources claim that Disney intend to release the film to coincide with the 2012 London Olympics.
The studio is in advanced negotiations over the project, according to Variety, with talks focusing on the rights to use 16 Beatles’ tunes, including Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, All You Need Is Love and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Actors would voice the characters of John, Paul, George and Ringo, just as they did in the 1968 original. The plot involves the band attempting to save the undersea paradise of Pepperland from the music-hating Blue Meanies.
The original story was written by Lee Minoff, with dialogue by poet Roger McGough, and based on the title song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
The Beatles originally shunned the film as part of a movie contract they couldn’t get out of, but later made a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene of the 1968 film when they saw the finished product.
The new version of Yellow Submarine will be made in performance-capture 3-D, a medium explored by Zemeckis in The Polar Express, Beowulf and the forthcoming Jim Carrey vehicle A Christmas Carol.
3-D technology is being touted as the future of Hollywood cinema, with James Cameron’s soon-to-be-released Avatar generating the biggest cinematic buzz of the year.
The Beatles cemented their love affair with the public via a series of films, which blended their music with the band’s distinctive knockabout humour.