Academy Award-winning producer Bruce Cohen (Milk, Silver Lining Play Book, American Beauty) will produce the film adaptation of the upcoming Dark Horse graphic novel The Fifth Beatle, according to Deadline.
 
The Fifth Beatle, penned by Tony-award winning producer Vivek J. Tiwary (Green Day’s American Idiot, Mel Brooks’ The Producers), with art by Andrew C Robinson and Kyle Baker,  is a biography of the Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who was dubbed "the fifth Beatle" by Paul McCartney.  He helped launch the career of the band and served as their manager until his death by accidental overdose in 1967.  The hard cover, 144-page graphic novel from Dark Horse’s M Press Books is due in stores November 19th and has an MSRP of $19.99.  There will also be a collector’s edition ($49.99) and limited edition ($99.99) available.

The M Press imprint was chosen for the book because Dark Horse is positioning it to appeal to audiences different from traditional graphic novel audiences, a spokesperson told ICv2, suggesting that the publisher would like to see the book racked in categories like music. 
 
Tiwary is also penning the script for the movie, and will produce with Cohen.  The Fifth Beatle will also be the first movie about the Beatles that has obtained the rights to use their original songs.  According to Deadline, production is set to begin in 2014.