WENN

Peter Jackson is to make a documentary film about The Beatles utilizing unseen footage of the group in the studio.

Executives at Jackson's company WingNut Films and The Beatles' firm Apple Corps announced they are collaborating on the movie, on Wednesday.

The new documentary uses footage shot by filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg while he was making a film documenting John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison recording their final studio album together, Let It Be, in 1969.

In a press release the Lord of the Rings filmmaker said: "The 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to us, ensures this movie will be the ultimate 'fly on the wall' experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about – it's like a time machine transports us back to 1969, and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together."

Lindsay-Hogg's original Let It Be film was released shortly after the group broke up in 1970, and famously ends with the band performing for the last time together on the top of Apple Corps west London townhouse headquarters.

Jackson, who recently received a BAFTA nomination for his First World War documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, said that the unreleased footage will shed a new light on the band's break-up, as they reveal the studio sessions were not as bad-tempered as first thought.

"Sure, there's moments of drama – but none of the discord this project has long been associated with," he explained. "Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating – it's funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate".

The untitled movie is being made with the cooperation of the surviving Beatles, Paul, who shared news on Twitter, and Ringo, as well as John and George's widows Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono. It is yet to receive a release date.