Just before his life was cut short on December 8, 1980, John Lennon spent the day giving a remarkably open radio interview. Now, director Steven Soderbergh is bringing that conversation to life in a new documentary that explores Lennon’s final hours in his own words.
Soderbergh spoke with Variety about the upcoming film, which centers on the interview Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono recorded that fateful afternoon on RKO Radio.
“I’m excited about it… The job is to obviously present it in such a way that it enhances the interview and doesn’t distract from it,” he said. “I’m just hoping to create a film that gets as many people as possible to hear what John and Yoko had to say on that afternoon before he was killed.”
The Oscar-winning director said he was struck by how Lennon and Ono “were both so free in their discussions.”
“I was surprised at how open and excited they were to talk,” Soderbergh added. “You would think they had never been interviewed before. So I want that to come across to the audience. Everything that they said 45 years ago is not just relevant today. It’s even more relevant in terms of relationships, politics, how we treat each other. How systems work on the individual and above all on the importance of love in our daily life and our world.”
At the time, Lennon and Ono had recently released Double Fantasy, their first project together in years. Yet, despite the excitement surrounding it, they chose to give only a single radio interview.
The three-and-a-half-hour session with RKO reporters Dave Sholin and Laurie Kaye reflected a Lennon who seemed happier than he had been in years.
“He had arrived at the Dakota somewhere around noon. The visual of John opening up the door, literally jumping up, leaping into the room and extending his arms like, ‘Hey folks, I’m here!’” Sholin said on 20/20 in 2020. “He had just turned 40. As he said, this was like he was opening up a new chapter. That was the mood of the day, and he could not have been more upbeat.”
Tragically, as Lennon and Ono headed back to their home at The Dakota, they unknowingly crossed paths again with Mark David Chapman, the same man who had earlier asked Lennon for an autograph.
When they arrived, Chapman drew a .38-caliber revolver, and fired at Lennon. The singer was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 40.
This story was originally reported by Parade on Nov 22, 2025, where it first appeared in the Celebs section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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