Now that Gladiator II starring Paul Mescal has officially wrapped, in time for its scheduled November 2024 release date, Ridley Scott is looking to line up his next project. And according to Deadline, it looks to be a Bee Gees biopic at Paramount Pictures.
The legendary director is currently in negotiations to helm the currently untitled film, which will also engender the involvement of Bohemian Rhapsody and The Departed producer, Graham King (the latter is also the longstanding President & CEO of production company GK Films).
While the scope of this undertaking has yet to be revealed given how early in the pre-pre-production stage it is, the screenplay has been penned by seasoned Scott-and-King collaborator John Logan.
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The veteran Hollywood scribe’s notable past writing credits include Gladiator, Alien: Covenant, The Aviator, and Rango, as well as Antoine Fuqua’s forthcoming Michael Jackson biopic starring the King of Pop’s nephew Jafaar. Logan has also written Any Given Sunday, The Last Samurai, Skyfall, and Spectre.
Ridley Scott’s proposed biopic will also have access to Bee Gees recordings thanks to Paramount Pictures’ acquisition of the rights back in 2019; in addition to the life rights to the Gibb family estate. Though given surviving band member/brother Barry Gibb has also signed on as an executive producer, it could very well run into the same curation issues we’ve previously outlined about the music biopic genre.
In total, the Bee Gees have sold over 250 million records worldwide — cementing their status as one of the best artists of all time — and won five Grammy Awards. Despite the decades that have passed since they first burst onto the scene, their unmistakable pop falsetto and disco-inspired harmonies can still be heard in just about every corner of the globe to this day.
