The planned biopic of supergroup the Bee Gees is undergoing a shift in director, but the film itself is... wait... for it... staying alive. (Sorry). Once and Sing Street director John Carney is now aboard to make the movie.
While Kenneth Branagh was attached last year, his schedule filled up with awards campaigning for Belfast, which ended its trophy run at the weekend with the filmmaker winning his first Oscar for its screenplay.
Paramount, though, has decided to put Carney in charge of the biopic, which will chronicle the Gibb brothers' rise to musical stardom and complicated career.
The Bee Gees had worldwide sales of more than 220 million records, establishing them as one of the biggest-selling groups of all time. While Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb first began performing together in the late 1950s with folk and soft rock, their popularity mushroomed after they wrote songs for Saturday Night Fever that fueled the popularity of disco and led to one of the top-selling albums ever, earning them five Grammys including Album of the Year.
Even though the soaring success made them world famous, rich and an indelible part of the ’70s zeitgeist, their position as the symbol of disco put them unexpectedly on their heels when there was an eventual backlash to the whole polyester vibe.
When Maurice Gibb died suddenly in January 2003 at the age of 53, the remaining brothers retired the group’s name after 45 years of work. They re-formed in 2009, but Robin died three years later at age 62 and that has left Barry Gibb to spread the band’s legacy.
Gladiator's John Logan is writing the script for the new film, which has Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King involved and Barry Gibb also keeping an eye on it.
Carney feels like a good choice for the movie given his experience with joyful music on screen. There's no indication yet on when this one will kick off shooting, let alone when it'll be out, but we're sure Paramount won't want to let it sit on the shelf too much longer.