Yahoo Lifestyle John Lennon and Yoko Ono Documentary ‘One to One’ Sells to Magnolia Pictures Ahead of Sundance
Magnolia Pictures has landed North American rights to “One to One: John & Yoko,” a documentary that offers an expansive and revealing look at the transformative 18 months of one of music’s most famous couples.
The sale went through before “One to One” is set to screen at Sundance Film Festival, which is taking place in Park City from Jan. 23-Feb. 2, 2025. The doc had its world premiere at Venice Film Festival and played at Telluride Film Festival before making the trek to Utah’s snowy mountain town.
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Magnolia plans to release “One to One: John & Yoko” exclusively in Imax on April 11 before expanding to additional theaters. It will land on HBO and Max at a later date in 2025.
Kevin Macdonald (an Oscar winner for “One Day in September”) directed the documentary, which captures the time that Lennon and Ono spent living in New York City’s Greenwich Village in the early 1970s. The film includes never-before-seen material and newly restored footage of Lennon’s only full-length, post-Beatles concert, which includes audio that was remastered by the couple’s son, Sean Ono Lennon.
“I am personally thrilled to be back with the Magnolia and HBO teams to be giving ‘One to One: John & Yoko’ the ambitious theatrical release that I always dreamed of for this film,” Macdonald said in a statement. “This is a movie about music and love and politics — and about immersing yourself in the year of 1972 — a period in time that feels uncannily like the world we are currently inhabiting. And more than anything else I’m grateful to Sean Lennon and Mercury Studios for entrusting the incredible One to One concert to me.”
“One to One” promises to “challenge pre-existing notions of the iconic couple,” according to a press release. The movie begins with an Aug. 20, 1972, benefit concert that Lennon, post-Beatles fame, and Ono hosted at Madison Square Garden. “One to One” is used as a jumping off point to explore a defining year and half for the couple, who arrived in the United States in 1971 and watched a huge amount of influential American television in their tiny Greenwich Village apartment. (Their space was meticulously reproduced for the documentary, where filming took place.) This period began to change their approach to protest — ultimately leading to the One to One concert, which was inspired by a Geraldo Rivera exposé they watched on TV.
“‘One to One: John & Yoko’ is a revelation,” said Magnolia Pictures co-CEO’s Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley. “Kevin Macdonald has given us an incredibly fresh, marvelously human and revealing look at the iconic couple.”
Peter Worsley, Macdonald and Alice Webb produced the film. Executive Producers were Marc Robinson, David Joseph, Steve Condie, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. The deal was negotiated by Magnolia senior VP of acquisitions John Von Thaden, with Cinetic on behalf of the filmmakers.
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