IRISHMAN JOHN Carney has been tipped to direct a biopic of pop group Bee Gees.
This will mark the first musical property based on real life musicians that Carney, form Dublin, has tackled but the acclaimed director has made a career of helming award-winning original musicals. His breakout feature Once went on to win the Oscar for best song and went on to be adapted for the stage taking home eight Tonys. He also helmed Begin Again and Sing Street.
He spent the last two years developing and running the Amazon Studios’ series Modern Love, which he created and is based on the New York Times columns of the same name.
Paramount has had recent success in the musical biopic world, having been the studio behind Elton John biopic Rocket Man, and it is currently developing the Bob Marley biopic starring Kingsley Ben-Adir.
Deadline also reports that Kenneth Branagh had been attached to the project but parted ways with it late last year due to other scheduling conflicts that included a time consuming awards campaign for Belfast, which won his the Oscar for Best Original screenplay on Sunday.
Bee Gees' Barry Gibb, who participated in the HBO documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart about the Gibb siblings, is said to be very involved in the narrative film and will serve as executive producer.
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.
US entertainment publication Deadline has reported that the script of the film will be written by John Logan for Paramount Pictures.
Logan has been nominated three times at the Oscars for Gladiator, Hugo and The Aviator, and won a Tony Award for his play Red and is currently represented on Broadway with the musical Moulin Rouge.
