A limited series about the Beatles manager Brian Epstein — widely dubbed “the fifth Beatle” — is in the works at Bravo.
Produced by Universal Cable Productions and Sonar Entertainment, the project is based on the Dark Horse Comics graphic novel “The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story” by Vivek J. Tiwary, who will pen the series adaptation and serve as executive producer along with Leopoldo Gout.
“The Fifth Beatle” recounts the true story of the legendary Beatles manager, described as “a brilliant yet often tormented dreamer who discovered the band in the Cavern Club in Liverpool, then nurtured, protected and guided them to unprecedented worldwide success.”
The series will document Epstein’s life as a gay Jewish man living in 1960s England where homosexuality was a felony, as he grows to become not only the engineer of Beatlemania, and a key architect of the cultural revolution of the sixties with his ambition to change the world and spread the Beatles’ messages of love and peace.
Epstein died in 1967 died of an overdose of the sleeping pill Carbitral.
The project joins Bravo’s scripted slate, which includes the newly greenlit anthology series “Dirty John,” the crime drama “Imposters” and the fifth and final season of “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce,” premiering this summer.