21/03/2013 - Producer Jørgen Storm Rosenberg signs deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing for his adaptation of Lars Saabye Christensen's 1984 bestseller

“It is a very decisive deal for us,” said Norwegian producer Jørgen Storm Rosenberg (Storm Rosenberg) after having secured a string of The Beatles’ original recordings for his upcoming adaptation of Norwegian author Lars Saabye Christensen’s novel, Beatles, which will be filmed by Kon-Tiki [+see also:
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“It was a prerequisite from the Norwegian Film Institute to support the film that the producers could get the rights for the music,” added the institute’s managing director development and production Ivar Køhn. The institute has chipped in €2.2 million for the €6.7 million project.

“We are very happy to have contributed to this book’s adaptation,” explained director film-TV Anette Hökengren, of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. “We hope the original music will help the filmmakers visualise the book,” declared president Stefan Blom, of EMI Music Nordic.

Saabye Christensen’s 1984 breakthrough – one of the all-time best-selling books in Norway - follows four 1960s teenagers about to enter the grown-up world, their boyish tricks, hopes and disappointments, falling in love, despair … but no group is better than The Fab Four.

Beatles will go into production in June and be domestically released on February 14, 2014, to coincide with the 30^th anniversary of the novel. Previous films from the author’s books include Erik Gustavson’s Herman (1990), Marius Holst’s Cross My Heart and Hope to Die (1994), and most recently, Norwegian pubcaster NRK’s TV series The Half Brother (2012).