Bravo Media has announced the development of a limited event series based on the award winning graphic novel The Fifth Beatle. From Universal Cable Productions (UCP) and Sonar Entertainment, the project is based on Eisner Award-winning and Tony Award-winning producer Vivek J. Tiwary’s critically acclaimed bestselling graphic novel, The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, exploring the complicated personal life of the band’s visionary manager who helped catapult the Fab Four to international stardom. Tiwary will pen the series adaptation and serve as executive producer along with Leopoldo Gout. The project includes Tiwary’s access to the John Lennon-Paul McCartney song catalog, the first Beatles-related biopic to secure such rights.

The Fifth Beatle recounts the true story of the legendary Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, 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. As a gay Jewish man living in 1960s England where homosexuality was a felony, Epstein was a double outsider who struggled to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.  He was instrumental in the Fab Four’s rise to fame and saw their potential when no one else did. Yet behind the music, Epstein suffered from loneliness and his crushing desires to be one of the boys and belong. Epstein grew to become not only the engineer of Beatlemania, but also 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.

Published by Dark Horse Comics, The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story was written by Vivek J. Tiwary with art by Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker.

The graphic novel has had a rocky road going from page to screen. In 2015 it was announced that Syco Entertainment and IM Global would bring it to the big screen. In March 2016, it was announced that Sonar Entertainment was developing the graphic novel as a multi-part television event series.