Did you know that Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis are making a musical comedy about a guy who wakes up one day and realizes hes the only person on Earth who remembers the Beatles ever existed? Did you know that in addition to EastEnders Himesh Patel and S.N.L.s Kate McKinnon, the movie also features Ed Sheeran bravely playing the role of . . . Ed Sheeran?
Although early reports suggested that this truly insane-sounding film would be set decades in the past, it now seems as though the film takes place in the modern day. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain how Sheeran would play himself, in a plotline that finds Sheeran discovering Patels singer-songwriter character and taking him on tour.
“Then he gets much, much bigger than me through doing stuff. Yeah, its very clever,” Sheeran told the Associated Press of the upcoming project. “I got to actually kind of learn how to act.” This education followed several previous Sheeran cameos in both film and television. He appeared briefly in Bridget Joness Baby, as well as in The Bastard Executioner and, most recently, Game of Thrones. As Sheeran told the A.P., those appearances simply entailed “popping in for a day. But this was, like, full days on set, like full 12-hour days.”
The movie also features Lily James, who recently worked with Curtis on the summer smash Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. We still dont know anything about her or McKinnons roles, though news items about the film have described it as a romantic comedy—which could mean that James will get another shot at playing a painfully charming romantic lead. (Could Patels character win her over with a solid cover of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”?) We know that the film also apparently features Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049), New Girls Lamorne Morris, and Game of Thrones Joel Fry.
A quick side note: given the movies subject matter, its musical format, and its ever-growing cast, James Corden must be sitting by his phone waiting for a call from Curtis, right? Especially after that Paul McCartney “Carpool Karaoke.” We can only hope that before the films planned release in September 2019, Boyle and Curtis also manage to cast Cher. After singing her way through ABBAs greatest hits, what could be a better follow-up than moving on to the Beatles?
Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
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