The announcement that writer-producer Vivek Tiwary’s graphic novel “The Fifth Beatle” would be made into a movie and that The Beatles have given him the rights to their catalog for the adaptation preceded the start of last week’s New York Comic Con.
While this news may not matter much to fans of comic book movies based on Marvel and DC Comics characters, it’s news that’s sure to excite fans of The Beatles since both the graphic novel and movie will tell the little-known story of the popular Liverpuddlian band’s first manager, Brian Epstein, whose struggles with being Jewish and gay in a time and place where neither were readily acceptable, informed his work with the band before his death in 1967.
Tiwary himself may have seemed like an odd candidate to write a comic book and movie based on the Beatles manager, but as a Broadway producer, Tiwary has already found huge success with Tony Award-winning shows like “The Addams Family,” Green Day’s “American Idiot,” Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” and “Young Frankenstein.” Tiwary is also a huge fan of comics and the graphic novel medium, being on the board of Valiant Entertainment, and a regular New York Comic Con attendee. The art for the graphic novel will be done by Andrew Robinson with Kyle Baker. (We actually got a look at some of the interior pages while at Comic Con and it looked fantastic.)
ComingSoon.net sat down with the New York-based writer-producer at New York Comic Con to talk about the project, which is moving forward to start filming next year, a video interview you can watch below.
