Hanks's movie will star the busy Benedict Cumberbatch as Epstein, the mild-mannered, dapper Jewish homosexual who was running his family's Liverpool furniture and record store when he heard the Beatles perform a lunchtime show at the Cavern Club and decided to become their manager.
The movie will be competing with The Fifth Beatle, based on a coming graphic novel. Although no casting has been announced, the movie, written by the novel's author Vivek Tiwary, has secured music rights to the Beatles songs.