NEW YORK -- There are only so many songwriting suggestions an outsider is allowed to offer Paul McCartney. Kirk Jones, director of the new Robert De Niro movie, Everybody's Fine, found the limit.

McCartney, who has written only a handful of songs specifically for films, decided to contribute the emotional ballad (I Want To) Come Home for the story about a widower's relationship with his grown children.

When Jones had some editing suggestions, the former Beatle listened. He added an instrumental intro to the song and switched the first and third verses. Then Jones suggested a change in the lyrics.

"I remember going over in the cab (to meet McCartney) and saying the only way I could do justice to him and the film was to be honest," Jones said.

With McCartney, he settled for two out of three.

"I don't want to be above the process," McCartney said. "I don't want to be one of those people who says, 'How dare you play with my music! My music is sacred!'

"I wrote for a movie. I might as well hear what the director has to say. But when he did go a comment too far, I did shut the door."

Jones had almost lost McCartney earlier. As McCartney sat in the screening room and the movie reached the emotional climax where he knew that any song he wrote would appear, he heard the place holder that Jones had also considered: Aretha Franklin singing McCartney's Beatles classic Let It Be.

"I go, 'I can't do this!' " McCartney said. " 'Are you kidding me? I can't do that.' My immediate reaction was, 'No way, dude.' "

But after seeing the movie, an idea came to him the next night.

"I thought, I like the film so much, I'll see if it works," he recalled. "Gradually, from there, I tried to use (Let It Be) as an inspiration for a new, different kind of song, but hopefully in the same emotional ballpark."

Jones said he loves how the new song works for the movie.

"I think it was sung with heart and passion and with honesty."