The Killing of John Lennon

The Killing of John Lennon is a 2006 British biographical drama film about Mark Chapman's plot to kill musician John Lennon. The film was written and directed by Andrew Piddington, and stars Jonas Ball, Robert C. Kirk and Thomas A. McMahon. British-produced, it was not released in the United States until 2008 and received much less attention than the similarly themed American-produced independent film Chapter 27 produced in 2007. While Chapter 27 deals almost wholly with the actions of Mark Chapman during the three days before his murder of Lennon, this film chronicles his life three months prior and contains many flashbacks to his earlier life and upbringing, while exploring in detail his infatuation with J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye and the links between this and his motivation for killing Lennon.