“The Beatles had been my whole life, really,” begins Paul McCartney in the new documentary trailer for Man on the Run. “When we split up, I thought, ‘I’ll never write another note of music, ever.’”
As we all know, fate had quite the contrary up its sleeve. After the dissolution of the Beatles, McCartney formed Wings alongside Linda, his wife and a renowned photographer (the first woman to shoot acover forRolling Stone), former Moody Blues singer Denny Laine, and drummer Denny Seiwell. A new film directed by Morgan Neville will explore the musician’s post-Beatles career and the storied love between Paul and Linda.
“I had fear of being a grown-up,” McCartney narrates in the trailer over home footage of the couple and their family. “I felt very depressed but I was very lucky because I had Linda.” The pair met in May 1967 and married in a small ceremony about two years later, remaining together for 29 years until her death from breast cancer on April 17, 1998. The trailer follows the couple and Wings from the lukewarm reception of their debut album, Wild Life, to their monumental third LP, Band on the Run. “When we started Wings, it was about freedom,” continues McCartney, adding, “We felt we’d finally arrived.”
The singer also acknowledges his complicated relationship with John Lennon toward the breakup of the Beatles. “Me and John, we were just growing apart, really,” McCartney says in the preview. “And now, we’re off on another journey. We’d had arguments and all of that, but we loved each other all our lives.”
The documentary will also feature behind-the-scenes footage of Wings on tour and unreleased music. Neville previously directed the Oscar-winning20 Feet From Stardom,Keith Richards: Under the Influence,andBono & the Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, With Dave Letterman. The filmmaker will also be producing the upcoming project with Tremolo’s Chloe Simmons, and Meghan Walsh; Scott Rodger and Ben Chappell for MPL; and Michele Anthony and David Blackman for Polygram Entertainment.
In a previous statement, Anthony said of the documentary, “How do you rediscover yourself after being in the biggest band the world has ever known? Well, until the breakup of the Beatles, no one had ever had to answer that question. At its heart, it’s a story of Linda and Paul’s enduring love as he finds his own voice as an artist, resulting in one of the most creative periods of his life.”