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Yesterday is a 2019 romantic comedy film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis, based on a story by Jack Barth and Curtis. Himesh Patel stars as struggling musician Jack Malik, who suddenly finds himself the only person who has ever heard of the Beatles and becomes famous after reintroducing their songs to the world. The film also stars Lily James, Joel Fry, Ed Sheeran, and Kate McKinnon. It gets its title from the 1965 Beatles song of the same name.

Yesterday
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Danny Boyle
Screenplay by	Richard Curtis
Story by	Jack Barth Richard Curtis
Produced by	Tim Bevan Eric Fellner Bernie Bellew Matthew James Wilkinson Richard Curtis Danny Boyle
Starring	Himesh Patel Lily James Joel Fry Ed Sheeran Kate McKinnon
Cinematography	Christopher Ross
Edited by	Jon Harris
Music by	Daniel Pemberton
Production companies	Perfect World Pictures Working Title Films Decibel Films Dentsu Inc.[1]
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	4 May 2019 (2019-05-04) (Tribeca) 28 June 2019 (2019-06-28) (United Kingdom & United States)
Running time	116 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$26–41.3 million[2][3]
Box office	$154.6 million[2]

Yesterday was announced in March 2018. Filming began the following month around England, particularly Norfolk and Halesworth in Suffolk. Photography also took place at Wembley Stadium, the Principality Stadium, and in Los Angeles. The filmmakers paid $10 million for the rights to use the Beatles' music; although none of the band members were involved, Boyle received approval for the project from them or their families.

Yesterday had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2019, and was released in the United Kingdom and the United States in June 2019, by Universal Pictures.[4] The film grossed $153 million worldwide against a production budget of $26 million. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the premise, performances, and musical sequences, but criticism for its familiarity and not exploring the concept further.

Plot

Jack Malik is a struggling singer-songwriter from Lowestoft who plays gigs to tiny crowds. His manager and childhood friend Ellie Appleton encourages him not to give up on his dreams. During a twelve-second global power outage, Jack is hit by a bus. After recovering, he sings the Beatles song "Yesterday" for his friends and discovers they have never heard of the Beatles. After searching for the Beatles on the internet and finding the band's records missing from his collection, Jack realizes that he is now in an alternative reality where the group never formed. He begins performing Beatles songs, passing them off as his own.

Ellie has Jack record a demo with Gavin, a local music producer. Following a performance on local television, Jack is invited by pop star Ed Sheeran to play as his opening act in Moscow. Ellie, a maths teacher who has parent-teacher conferences scheduled, declines to join him, so Jack's roadie friend Rocky travels with him instead. After the gig, Sheeran challenges Jack to a songwriting duel: after Jack plays "The Long and Winding Road", Sheeran graciously accepts defeat. In Los Angeles, Sheeran's ruthless manager Debra Hammer signs Jack to her label and engineers his rise to global fame.

At Jack's going-away party before his move to L.A., Ellie confesses that she has always been in love with him. Jack starts recording an album at EastWest Studios but cannot remember the lyrics for "Eleanor Rigby." Hoping to trigger memories, Jack goes to the Beatles' hometown of Liverpool, visiting landmarks such as Strawberry Field, Penny Lane, and the grave of Eleanor Rigby. Ellie joins him in Liverpool, and they spend a drunken evening and kiss, but Ellie tells Jack she is not interested in a one-night stand. The next morning, Jack and Rocky pursue Ellie to the train station, where she congratulates Jack but tells him she cannot be a part of his celebrity life. Jack returns to Los Angeles heartbroken and desperate to have an everyday life again, while Ellie begins dating Gavin.

The record label prepares to launch Jack's debut album but reject his title ideas named from Beatles albums and name it One Man Only, pushing his talent. Jack persuades them to launch the album with a rooftop concert in Gorleston-on-Sea. Two people also transferred to the alternative reality during the power outage approach him backstage. They tell him they know he didn't write the songs, but thank him, having feared the Beatles' music was gone forever. They give him the address of John Lennon, who, having never formed The Beatles in this reality, has survived into old age, out of the public spotlight. John, who has lived a happy life with his wife, advises Jack to pursue the one he loves and always tell the truth.

Jack calls in a favour with Sheeran, who arranges for him to perform at Wembley Stadium. Jack confesses to the crowd that he plagiarized the music and loves Ellie, and has Rocky upload the songs free to the internet, sabotaging the record release and enraging Debra. Jack and Ellie marry and start a family, and Jack gives up stardom to become a music teacher.

Cast

In addition, James Corden and Michael Kiwanuka appear as themselves, and Robert Carlyle makes an uncredited appearance as John Lennon.[5]

Production

Writing

Yesterday began as a 2012 screenplay, Cover Version, by the American writer Jack Barth.[6] Barth had been struggling to sell screenplays for decades, and conceived the story when it occurred to him that if Star Wars had not been created and he conceived it, he would not be able to sell it.[6] In Barth's script, a "meditation on professional disappointment", Jack did not find success with the Beatles songs.[6]

An early version of the screenplay was worked on by the British actor Mackenzie Crook, who intended to direct.[7] Crook left to work on his television series Detectorists.[8] The script was passed to the production company Working Title. Years later, while working on clearance rights for the Beatles songs, a Working Title producer mentioned the screenplay to the British filmmaker Richard Curtis, who bought it and rewrote it as a romantic comedy.[6] On Curtis's insistence,[6] the screenplay is credited to Curtis and the story credited to Curtis and Barth.[9]

Curtis told interviewers he did not read Barth's script, preferring to use the premise to write his own version.[6] He told Den of Geek: "I sometimes found when I worked with original material that it doesn't come from the heart. So I tried to write a whole film that meant something to me, rather than having too much extra information."[10] However, according to Barth, the final film includes many elements of his screenplay, including John Lennon as a wizened fisherman and a joke about Harry Potter.[6] Curtis credited the Harry Potter joke to a suggestion from the American comedian Sarah Silverman, who is thanked in the credits.[6]

Barth complained that Curtis had taken sole credit for the screenplay and damaged him financially.[6] He felt that Curtis had changed the story to make Jack a successful songwriter as a reflection of Curtis's own career: "[Curtis] met Rowan Atkinson at Oxford, he came out of Oxford and immediately rode Rowan Atkinson to huge success in his early twenties. He's never been knocked out, as far as I know. Why wouldn't [Jack] become the most successful songwriter in the world?"[6]

Casting

In March 2018, it was announced that Curtis and director Danny Boyle were working on a musical comedy set in the 1960s or 1970s following "a struggling musician who thinks he's the only person who can remember the Beatles", with Himesh Patel cast in the lead role.[11] Boyle was convinced Patel was the right choice after listening to him perform the Beatles songs "Yesterday" and "Back in the U.S.S.R." during auditions.[12] Boyle felt that Patel's voice had soul.[13] Patel sang and performed guitar and piano himself.[14]

Later in March 2018, Lily James and Kate McKinnon joined the cast.[15][16] Boyle informed the surviving members and widows of the Beatles about the film and received a reply he described as "lovely" from Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.[17] In April 2018, it was revealed that Ed Sheeran had joined the cast.[18][19] Sheeran's role was originally intended for Coldplay singer Chris Martin, who turned it down.[13] Sheeran said Harry Styles was also asked, which Boyle denied.[20] Ana de Armas and Lamorne Morris joined later in April,[21][22] followed by Sophia Di Martino, Joel Fry and Harry Michell in May.[23]

Filming

Filming began on 21 April 2018,[24] with production in the United Kingdom starting on 26 April 2018, with scenes filmed across East Anglia in Cantley, Halesworth, Dunwich, Shingle Street, Latitude Festival and Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.[25] A casting call was issued for extras in overnight scenes shot immediately after Sheeran's four consecutive concerts at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales in May 2018.[26] A further 5,000 extras appeared in scenes at Gorleston-on-Sea Beach in Norfolk in June 2018.[27] Wembley Stadium was also used to film a concert scene.[17] Filming also took place in Liverpool, making use of Penny Lane, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Lime Street Station and the Queensway Tunnel.[28]

In February 2019, it was announced that the title of the film was Yesterday.[29] It is estimated to have cost around $10 million to get the rights for the Beatles' songs to be featured in the film, with the rights to their music being held by Apple Records and Sony/ATV Music Publishing.[30] Scenes with de Armas, who played another love interest for Jack, were cut as test audiences felt it made Jack less sympathetic.[31] Ana de Armas appeared in some of the early promotional material before the final edit was made and this has since led to a $5m lawsuit in the US[32] where two fans claim they were "duped into renting the [$3.99] movie because she [de Armas] was in the trailer".[33]

Release

Yesterday was initially set for a September 2019 release, but was moved up to 28 June 2019, largely as a result of a copyright suit filed by Paul McCartney. The rights to some of the earlier Beatles songs used in the film would revert to McCartney in the autumn of 2019, and Sony Music wanted to get ahead of it.[34]^{[failed verification]}

The first official trailer of the film was released on 12 February 2019.[35] The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on 4 May 2019.[36] A local screening of the film took place at the Gorleston Palace cinema on 21 June 2019.[37] Universal spent $75.4 million promoting the film worldwide.[3]

Reception

Box office

Yesterday grossed $73.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $80.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $153.7 million, against a production budget of $26 million.[2] This includes over £13.8 million ($17.8 million) grossed in the United Kingdom.[38][39]

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $10–15 million from 2,603 theatres in its opening weekend.[40] The film made $6.1 million on its first day, including $1.25 million from Thursday night previews. It ended up slightly exceeding projections and debuting to $17 million, finishing third behind Toy Story 4 and Annabelle Comes Home.[41] In its second weekend the film made $10.7 million, again finishing in third (behind Spider-Man: Far From Home and Toy Story 4),[42] then grossed $6.8 million in its third weekend, falling to fifth.[43] In other territories, the film opened to $7.8 million, including $2.8 million in the United Kingdom (where it finished second behind Toy Story 4) and $2.5 million in Australia.[44][45]

Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $45 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[46] Universal officially took an $87.8 million loss on the film in 2019, which Deadline deduced would eventually result in a $26.5 million profit after TV and video sales (an estimated $78.4 million by early 2020) were taken into account.[3]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 63% of 358 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Yesterday may fall short of fab, but the end result is still a sweetly charming fantasy with an intriguing—albeit somewhat under-explored—premise."[47] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[48] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 87% of audience members gave the film a positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend it.[41]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars, writing "although this film can be a bit hokey and uncertain on narrative development, the puppyish zest and fun summoned up by Curtis and Boyle carry it along."[49] Robbie Collin also responded positively in his review for The Daily Telegraph, saying the film "rallies in style for a beautifully judged and surprisingly moving finale, which owes a lot to Patel and James's chemistry."[50] Owen Gleiberman of Variety, meanwhile, was less enthusiastic, claiming the film had little soul and calling it a "rom-com wallpapered with the Beatles' greatness."[51] Laura Snapes of The Guardian called Yesterday "the latest jukebox movie to put its women on mute."[52]

Beatles' response

Paul McCartney revealed in an interview with Billboard that he and his wife Nancy Shevell went to see the film in a cinema in The Hamptons and "loved it."[53] Boyle also sent copies of the completed film to Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara, as well as George Harrison's widow Olivia, and received "lovely messages" from both parties.[54] John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, also approved of the film's depiction of her husband.[55]

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipients	Result
Awards of the Japanese Academy	March 6, 2020	Best Foreign Film	Yesterday	Nominated
Blue Ribbon Awards	22 January 2020	Best Foreign Film	Yesterday	Nominated
Golden Trailer Awards	29 June 2019	Best Music	Universal Pictures and Motive NYC	Nominated
Goya Awards	January 25, 2020	Best European Film	Yesterday – Danny Boyle	Nominated
Hollywood Music in Media Awards	9 November 2019	Outstanding Music Supervision – Film	Angela Leus	Nominated
		Best Soundtrack Album	Yesterday	Nominated
Montclair Film Festival	May, 2019	World Cinema	Danny Boyle	Won
Music City Film Critics' Association Awards	10 January 2020	Best Music Film	Yesterday	Nominated
Toronto International Film Festival	September, 2019	People's Choice Award	Favorite Comedy Movie	Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society	9 December 2019	Best Use of Music in a Film	Yesterday	Nominated
St. Louis Film Critics Association	15 December 2019	Best Soundtrack	Yesterday	Nominated
		Special Merit (for best scene, cinematic technique or other memorable aspect or moment)	Jack visits cottage.	Nominated
Saturn Awards	September 13, 2019	Best Fantasy Film	Yesterday	Nominated
Teen Choice Awards	August 11, 2019	Choice Summer Movie	Yesterday	Nominated
		Choice Summer Movie Actor	Himesh Patel	Nominated
World Soundtrack Awards	12 August 2019	Film Composer of the Year	Daniel Pemberton	Nominated

Comparisons

As remarked upon in the media, a number of other works have had a similar premise or theme[56][57] involving parallel worlds or time travel. These include the 2011 French graphic novel Yesterday by David Blot and Jérémie Royer (the title, again, alluding to the Beatles song),[58][59][60] the 2010–2012 Japanese manga I'm a Beatle (僕はビートルズ, Boku wa Bītoruzu) by Tetsuo Fujii and Kaiji Kawaguchi,[61] the 1990s British sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart,[62] the 2006 French film Jean-Philippe,[63][64] and Nick Milligan's 2013 novel Enormity.[65] Danny Boyle has said he was not aware of earlier works with similar premises when he read the script but had later become aware of a French film and British sitcom with a similar premise after the film's first trailer was revealed.[13]

The film was also compared to Blinded by the Light (2019), a British comedy-drama produced around the same time about an aspiring British Asian writer inspired by the songs of Bruce Springsteen.[66]

See also

• Parallel universes in fiction

References

External links

• Yesterday at IMDb

На других языках

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[de] Yesterday (2019)

Yesterday ist eine britische Musikkomödie von Danny Boyle, die am 28. Juni 2019 in die Kinos im Vereinigten Königreich und in den USA und am 11. Juli 2019 in die deutschen Kinos kam.

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- [en] Yesterday (2019 film)

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[es] Yesterday (película de 2019)

Yesterday es una película británica de comedia musical, dirigida por Danny Boyle, a partir de un guion de Richard Curtis y una historia de Jack Barth. Está protagonizada por Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon y Ed Sheeran (como él mismo).

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[ru] Yesterday (фильм, 2019)

Yesterday (с англ. — «Вчера») — художественный фильм британского режиссёра Дэнни Бойла, рассказывающий о человеке, который оказывается почти единственным в мире, кто помнит песни группы The Beatles[2].

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