Kenneth Branagh is getting in on the rock music biopic craze. Variety reports Branagh will direct a biopic on Hall of Fame band The Bee Gees which is developing at Paramount. This is following on the recent HBO doc The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart by Frank Marshall, but Branagh’s film will be a narrative ala Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman.
The untitled Bee Gees film will follow “the life and times of the genre-spanning band, following the humble beginnings of brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb into their journey to pop superstardom.” The group’s 50 year career included over 1,000 songs and nearly two dozen number one hits, including “Staying Alive”, “How Deep is Your Love”, and “Jive Talking.”
The script is by Ben Elfton, who had a role in Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing and also wrote his 2018 historical drama All Is True.
Also on board the film are a couple of familiar hands at this sort of thing. Producer Graham King was previously involved on Bohemian Rhapsody, and that obviously turned out quite well. Steven Spielberg, who had been rumored to direct the movie himself at one point, is producing through his Amblin Entertainment banner. Clearly he digs that Bee Gees sound.
There is another Bee Gees film in the works that Bohemian Rhapsody writer Anthony McCarten attached. Last we heard of that one Bradley Cooper was being eyed for a role, but that was a year ago and who knows where it stands now. Maybe this is the same one
Next up for Branagh is his long-delayed sequel Death On the Nile, followed by the Brit drama Belfast.
