If it comes off, it’ll be one of the unlikeliest collaborations ever seen up on the big screen. According to reports, film auteur Steven Spielberg – the man responsible for such mega hits as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, and Jurassic Park – is considering taking the story of disco legends the Bee Gees to Hollywood.
Apparently the Oscar winning director believes the success story of Barry, Robin and the late Maurice Gibb (who died back in 2003) is a sure-fire hit. The ‘Bee Gees’ brothers were born in Britain’s Isle of Man, but relocated to the Queensland captial of Brisbane in the late 1950’s as small children. After their twelfth single became a chart-topper – now the theme song of Australia’s most popular music quiz show, ABC program “Spicks And Specks” – the Gibb brothers returned to the UK... and went on to become of the world’s most popular disco acts, selling over 200 million albums.
According to Robin Gibb, the acclaimed Hollywood director has been in talks with the brothers about the project, and is interested in taking their tale to cinemagoers. “The movie is going to be done by some very important people. It will be our life story. Barry and I will be involved in the technical side,” 60-year-old Robin told the Sunday Mail, after confirming that the “Jive Talkin’” duo are planning on touring together again – their first trek since Maurice’s death. Without his younger brother, Robin admitted that one of the biggest challenges to the project will be replicating the group’s distinctive three-part harmonies. Instead, he wants the Bee Gees’ “original recordings to be used, because it’s very hard to emulate them.”
With 22 studio albums and 83 singles to their name, the Bee Gees were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1997, described appropriately as “Britain’s first family of harmony.”
