Kenneth Branagh was scheduled to direct the untitled biopic Bee Gees for Paramount Pictures.
The film was created in a huge package of rights in late 2019 by Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King at GK and became the first film project for Sister – the venture launched by Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone. Amblin quickly joined as a producer and financier for 25% of the film.
Barry Gibb, who participated in the touching HBO documentary directed by Frank Marshall How can you mend a broken heart about the Gibb brothers, she is very involved in the narrative of the film and will be an executive producer.
Ben Elton is writing the current draft of the script. Among his script credits is Everything is true, the 2018 photo that Branagh directed and starred as William Shakespeare.
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In that deal that Deadline broke in 2019, Paramount obtained the life rights on the Gibb family’s property and the rights to use their classic songs in a film that could very well follow the blockbuster model nominated for Best Picture Bohemian Rhapsody, because the songs are so well made, with exciting falsetto.
Bee Gees had worldwide sales of more than 220 million records, establishing them as one of the best-selling groups of all time. While Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb started performing together in the late 1950s with folk and soft rock, their popularity grew rapidly after they wrote songs for Saturday Night Fever which fueled the album’s popularity and led to one of the best-selling albums of all time, winning five Grammys, including Album of the Year. Even though their great success made them world famous, wealthy and an indelible part of the 1970s zeitgeist, their position as the disco symbol placed them unexpectedly on their heels when there was an eventual reaction to all the vibration of the polyester.
When Maurice Gibb died suddenly in January 2003, at age 53, the remaining brothers removed the group’s name after 45 years of work. They graduated again in 2009, but Robin died three years later, at the age of 62, which left Barry Gibb to spread the band’s legacy.
Branagh is represented by WME and Berwick & Kovack. He wrapped up the sequel Death on the Nile and reprized as Hercule Poirot for 20th Century Studios, and wrote and directed the 60’s drama Belfast for focus features.