We can’t really imagine how they’re going to attempt this one but we can’t wait to find out. The latest news in Tinseltown is that Robert Zemeckis and Disney are partnering up to remake Beatle’s film The Yellow Submarine.

The original psychedelic animation made in 1968 featured (well they looked and sounded like them at least) the biggest band in the world (then and probably still now) The Fab Four aka The Beatles. The plot was that the four Liverpudlian lads were brought from Liverpool to Land of Submarines, to help Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band see off the music-hating Blue Meanies. The Beatles themselves didn’t provide the voice work, although the music was obviously theirs, and they did finally show up at the end.

Negotiations for the project, which may well involve a Disney-esque Lion King-style stage show, have been going on for months and has involved masses of lawyers. The rights to The Beatles’ songs are notoriously entangled (even before Michael Jackson’s death), and using the originals in movies has proved a task beyond many directors interested in the project.

Zemeckis, though, seems to have secured rights to classic Beatles tracks like All You Need Is Love, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Baby, You’re A Rich Man and All Together Now – so it looks like this is definitely going ahead. There’s been no word yet on the involvement of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the two surviving Beatles or even producer George Martin (who wrote much of the music for the film), but it’s hard to imagine them not being involved somewhere down the line. Zemeckis plans to have it finished for summer 2012.