Director Peter Jackson blames both the Beatles' company Apple and Disney for not moving ahead with an extended version of the critically lauded The Beatles: Get Back film. The new DVD and Blu-ray version of the film features no additional footage — despite the fact that Jackson has publicly stated he is prepared to deliver a deluxe 16-hour edit of the film.
The Playlist.net reported Jackson spoke about the future of the Get Back project with Kim Masters from The Hollywood Reporter on The Business podcast. When Masters stated that she knew Jackson was currently prepping a longer version of Get Back for release, he said, “I’m not, no. I’m fighting to, Kim, help me. Disney and Apple are reluctant because they say — and they might be quite right — that there’s no market anymore for extended cuts. But I know that there’s five or six hours of fantastic material that we didn’t include, and I don’t want it to go back into the faults for 50 years. So, let’s just say that it’s a conversation that’s happening, but it’s not necessarily a definitive one at this point.”
Due to production delays and problems, the Get Back home release was stalled, which pulled much of the attention away from the physical release. Sadly, the lack of promotion and bonus content seems to have turned the runaway success of the TV broadcast into yesterday's news.
Roger Friedman of Showbiz411.com recently posted: “Get Back was finally released three weeks ago in both formats. No one knows about it, and it’s been a dud. The DVD version has sold just 12,716 copies. The Blu Ray has sold 31,661. This is very disappointing. Total sales so far have come to just $1.6 million.” (Showbiz411)
Michael Lindsey-Hogg, the director of the Beatles' Let It Be film and all the outtakes mined for the Get Back miniseries, is amazed with what the new footage looks and sounds like: “First of all — technically, it's fabulous. So, the images look like they were shot yesterday, but also Peter's got wonderful sound equipment over there. One of the problems when we shot it 50 years ago was that musicians have this annoying habit of when they're talking to you — if they're not rehearsing a song — of, sort of, noodling on a guitar. Someone might be saying something really interesting, but then there would be a (imitates guitar squawk) on the guitar. What Peter's done is, he's got equipment over there which has been able to separate tracks.”
