'Nowhere Boy' -- An Exclusive Sneak Peek at the John Lennon Biopic

The Quarrymen, the Liverpool teen skiffle group that would eventually become a little band called the Beatles, chose two songs for their first studio recording session in July 1958. One was 'That'll Be the Day,' a cover of the song by their hero Buddy Holly. The other, written by 16-year-old Paul McCartney and 15-year-old George Harrison and sung by the group leader, 17-year-old John Lennon, was called 'In Spite of All the Danger.' In this montage from the forthcoming film 'Nowhere Boy,' a biographical portrait of Lennon's tumultuous adolescence and the birth of the Beatles, actors Aaron Johnson (Lennon) and Thomas Brodie Sangster (McCartney) play the teenage musicians. Johnson told Moviefone, regarding the pressure of portraying Lennon, "To be honest, I didn't really think about it too much 'cause, like, I just couldn't. I'd be stopped in my tracks." Both actors sing their own parts; Sangster, the voice of Ferb in 'Phineas and Ferb,' learned to play guitar left-handed for his role.

Watch an Exclusive Clip From 'Nowhere Boy'

Released in the UK in 2009 to several British Academy Film Award nominations, 'Nowhere Boy' hits screens in America on Oct. 8, one day before the 70th anniversary of Lennon's birth. (Other events timed to the birthday include remastered reissues of Lennon's solo albums, a stripped-down version of 'Double Fantasy,' new box sets and tribute concerts across the globe.) The film is directed by conceptual artist Sam Taylor-Wood, perhaps best known for her collaboration (with Henry Bond) on a piece called '26 October 1993,' a reimagining of the classic Rolling Stone cover of a naked Lennon wrapped around a clothed Yoko Ono, taken by Annie Leibovitz a few hours before Lennon's murder in 1980.

Lennon would have approved of the film, Ono said at a recent screening in New York. "He would have loved that you know the pain he went through in his childhood," she said. "That pain really created all the songs and statements he made. It made him a very wise person. You might think it's terrible John went through all this, but it was a blessing."

Speaking of Lennon's beloved Big Apple, it was photographer Bob Gruen, a close friend who documented Lennon's New York years in the 1970s, who gave the singer the New York City T-shirt he wore in one of the best-known images of the late musical icon. "We had no idea when we were taking it that it would become such a well-known picture," Gruen recounts in this PhotoSynthesis gallery for Spinner below. The Quarrymen had no idea just what they were getting into, either.


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