Ridley Scott simply refuses to retire. Napoleon just landed in cinemas. Gladiator 2 is currently filming. Alreay he is reportedly in negotiations to direct an as-yet untitled Bee Gees biopic. This is currently in fast track developemnt at Paramount, according to Deadline.
Scott will also produce alongside Michael Pruss, Graham King and Stacey Snider, with surviving Bee Gee Barry Gibb as executive producer.
The Bee Gees are globally famous. Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb first began performing in the late 1950s, but their breakthrough came with the age of disco, and perhaps the biggest spotlight fell on them when they wrote half the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. They won five Grammy Awards for Saturday Night Fever, including Album of the Year. They have record sales of more than 220 million records.
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, and the Hall’s citation says:
“Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees.”
With nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Bee Gees are the third-most successful band in Billboard charts history behind only the Beatles and the Supremes. They still shift records today, with hits like Stayin’ Alive, More Than a Woman, Tragedy, and How Deep is Your Love keeping the group featuring on streaming lists everywhere.
Maurice died in 2003 and Robin in 2009. Following the first death, the band retired the name.
The script is by John Logan (Skyfall, The Last Samurai) and Scott has also known their longtime manager Robert Stigwood for many years. Paramount has already scored the life rights to the Gibb family estate in 2019 including rights to use their classic songs in the film.
Obligatory insert whenever the Bee Gees are mentioned:
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