Wings Over Wilshire, Paul McCartney and Judd Apatow Talk Man on the Run at the Academy Museum

Paul McCartney spent Monday night, September 28, in an intimate theater on Wilshire Boulevard. After a screening of Man on the Run, the Morgan Neville documentary about his years after the Beatles, he sat down at the Academy Museum’s Ted Mann Theater with Neville and Judd Apatow, who moderated, for a 45-minute conversation in front of 275 guests, Variety reported.

The night opened the film’s awards campaign. Gold Derby reported that the screening was held for guild members and award voters and that the Amazon MGM production is eligible for Best Documentary Feature. McCartney already has an Oscar, won with the Beatles for the Let It Be score, and Neville won one for 20 Feet From Stardom.

The film covers the decade from 1970 to 1980, when McCartney moved on from the Beatles and started Wings with his wife, Linda. “It’s like you got sacked,” he said of the breakup, according to Variety. He told the room the idea for Wings came from watching Johnny Cash on television, after Cash had put together a band with Carl Perkins. He turned to Linda and asked if she wanted to start one.

Apatow kept the talk loose. He compared the Wings years to working for Garry Shandling, pressed McCartney on John Lennon and drew out the story of the days McCartney spent in a Japanese jail in 1980. When McCartney described joining the other inmates in a communal bath, Apatow said, “This could’ve been the entire documentary!” McCartney offered a title for the sequel, Man in a Tub.

He spoke warmly of Lennon. “I loved John and love him to this day and always will,” he said, according to Gold Derby. Neville said there is more to tell, since the film ends in 1980. “There are many more stories,” he said.

McCartney also had a verdict for the director. “You made a great film, I think,” he told him.

The Beatles story keeps finding its way to Los Angeles stages. Velvet covered Olivia Harrison’s own look back in The Beatles Through George’s Lens.