RON HOWARD WANTS TO MAKE SECOND BEATLES FILM

Ron Howard wants to make a follow-up to his rock documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years.

The 62-year-old filmmaker has edited archive material, unearthed new footage of The Beatles in concert and even obtained unseen home movies from Paul McCartney to tell the story of the band's early touring years. 

Howard says he was so taken with the subject he'd love to make another film about the history of the Fab Four.

"I found this (making Eight Days A Week) to be so fascinating that I'd be very open to that," he tells British newspaper The Times.

The film is the first since the band's 1970 split to be authorised by McCartney, drummer Ringo Star, as well as the widows of late bandmembers George Harrison and John Lennon, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono.

It mainly examines the years when the iconic group performed live, from early gigs in the Cavern Club in Liverpool, England in 1962 until a final concert in Los Angeles' Candlestick Park in 1966.

Howard tells the newspaper he shied away from the darker aspects of the group's story, saying he did not, "go looking in dark corners" when making the film. 

Any follow-up could tell the story of The Beatles' demise, which saw them grow apart in the late 1960s after abandoning touring even while making some of the most highly regarded music of all-time.

Their acrimonious break-up resulted in lengthy legal proceedings and Lennon openly criticising McCartney in his solo material.

And former actor Howard saw Starr's troubles close-up when the musician turned up on the set of his U.S. TV show Happy Days with hellraising The Who drummer Keith Moon. Starr's set visit came in the midst of a near two decade battle with alcoholism.

"Neither one of them (Starr or Moon) were probably in much shape to remember the experience (of visiting the set)," Howard explains. "They were the wilderness years which Ringo readily admits. They actually wanted to be in a scene and (fellow Happy days star) Henry Winkler and I were desperate to get them on film, but it couldn't possibly be in the episode."

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years opens in theatres worldwide later this week (beg12Sep16).