Can Gladiator Director Ridley Scott Give Us A Music Biopic That Doesn't Suck?
Deadline reports that director Ridley Scott is in talks to direct an as-of-now untitled Bee Gees biopic for Paramount. A couple of years ago, Kenneth Branagh was reported to be directing this Bee Gees movie, and way back in 2010, there were rumors that Steven Spielberg might direct it.
According to the report, Scott has long wanted to make a movie with or about the Bee Gees, ever since the band's longtime manager Robert Stigwood worked with Scott on developing a movie with the band's members back in the 1970s. Though the movie fell apart, Scott has a chance now, nearly 50 years later, to tell the story of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The other big reason Scott is being attached to the project is that Paramount executives reportedly loved early footage of Scott's upcoming "Gladiator 2" and wanted to sign the prolific director for his next feature as quickly as possible.
When it comes to the Bee Gees, their story as a band already feels tailor-made for the big screen. The group of brothers started a band in the late '60s, with early success, but achieved huge popularity in the '70s during the height of the disco era. Even when the genre was all but dead, the Bee Gees' inclusion on the soundtrack to "Saturday Night Fever" revived disco and gave the band a second life. After, their popularity never achieved the same level, and when Maurice Gibb died suddenly in 2003, it effectively ended the band — though attempts were made to bring it back in some capacity.
How deep is Ridley Scott's love for The Bee Gees?
Sir Ridley Scott has a legendary career as a director, getting involved in all sorts of genres. One thing the Oscar-nominated director hasn't done yet is direct a musical, even a musical biopic. Granted, he's directed plenty of biographical pictures, like the recent "Napoleon" historical epic, and he has directed one music video in the past, for Roxy Music's "Avalon" in 1982.
The problem with a Bee Gees biopic is the same problem as any other biopic in recent years — while they occasionally make money (as is happening now with "Bob Marley: One Love"), creatively, they're mostly boring retreads of the same formula we've seen dozens of times before. This is an unfortunate issue seemingly inherent to the genre, which tends to lean toward safe, familiar tropes and let audiences relieve musical moments rather than deliver insightful narratives away from the songs. It doesn't help that the genre has already been perfectly parodied in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," making most new attempts at music biopics feel derivative at best and DOA at worst.
That being said, the few that have managed to stand out are ones where the director has a clear and distinct vision — like Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis." If we're lucky, a director like Ridley Scott, who has a personal connection to the subjects of this story and who is reuniting with screenwriter John Logan ("Gladiator," "Alien: Covenant"), just might be able to crack the code.