Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is taking on a new challenge by directing a documentary focused on John Lennon’s final interview, offering a compelling look at the last hours before Lennon’s death in New York City. The project, centered on Steven Soderbergh directing documentary on John Lennon’s final interview, is already underway and aims to capture the gravity and intimacy of a moment frozen in music history.
Soderbergh’s Return to Documentaries with a Moving Subject
Known for reinventing himself with each project—from Ocean’s Eleven to his experiment with iPhone filmmaking—Soderbergh now shifts his lens to an intensely personal event. After a lengthy gap since his last documentary, And Everything Is Going Fine, which profiled Spalding Gray over a decade ago, Soderbergh revisits the genre. Production on the Lennon documentary is already in progress, and the film is targeting completion by year’s end, though its distributor remains unannounced.
Exploring Lennon’s Last In-Depth Interview
The story at the heart of this documentary is the final extended conversation John Lennon gave, recorded on December 8, 1980, mere hours before he was murdered outside his Dakota apartment. The RKO Radio team met with Lennon and Yoko Ono at their home, capturing candid reflections as Lennon stepped back into the public eye.
This interview holds particular weight because it was the only radio exchange Lennon and Ono participated in while promoting their comeback album Double Fantasy. At 40, Lennon had just emerged from a five-year break to focus on raising his son, Sean, with an evident sense of hope and renewal in his voice as he spoke of his present and future.
The Lasting Impact of Lennon’s Words
During the conversation, Lennon expressed views that, in retrospect, haunt listeners given what was about to unfold:
“I consider that my work won’t be finished until I’m dead and buried, and I hope that’s a long, long time.”
—John Lennon
Just twelve hours after this interview, the world lost Lennon when Mark David Chapman shot him outside his New York City home. This event not only shocked fans everywhere but also marked a defining end of an era, making the recorded conversation even more poignant.
Why This Moment Matters in Pop Culture
The Beatles’ influence endures in both music and film, with projects like Sam Mendes’s upcoming four-part biopic series for each band member set for a 2028 release. However, Soderbergh’s documentary pursues a sharply focused narrative: a single afternoon at the Dakota apartment, where a significant figure shared rare and intimate thoughts mere hours before tragedy.
With Steven Soderbergh directing documentary on John Lennon’s final interview, audiences can expect a film that captures the deep conflict, hope, and lasting resonance of Lennon’s words just before his story ended. The film’s completion is anticipated by the end of the year, adding another vital layer to Lennon’s ongoing legacy and pop culture’s memory of that fateful day in New York City.
