The upcoming Bee Gees biopic is set to be directed by award-winning actor and writer Kenneth Branagh, industry publication Deadline reported.

The project took shape in 2019 when Graham King, who produced the award-winning Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody, arranged a deal with the Gibb family, securing the services of surviving band member Barry Gibb as executive producer. Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment became a 25 percent partner and the movie house Sister – established by veterans Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone – were signed up, too.

Deadline noted that Gibb was “very involved in the narrative,” which is being written by Ben Elton. He’s best known for the Blackadder historical sitcom franchise in the U.K.; he's also written the jukebox musicals We Will Rock You and Tonight’s the Night, based on the catalogs of Queen and Rod Stewart, respectively. He also wrote All Is True, the 2018 William Shakespeare biopic that Branagh directed and starred in.

Gibb was involved in the recent well-received Bee Gees documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart – although he admitted he didn’t plan to watch the entire production since it covered the deaths of his bandmate brothers. “I can’t handle watching the loss of my family, I just can’t handle it,” he told CBS Sunday Morning in February. “Who would? I think it’s perfectly normal to not want to see how each brother was lost, you know? And I don’t want to address it. I’m past it.”

He added that, contrary to rumors, he didn't suffer a breakdown after the loss of his last brother, Robin, in 2015. But, he sad, "we've never not been together. The first year after … that was the most difficult period for me. I just didn't know where to go. I didn't know what to do. And I didn't know how to be perceived. I didn't know how to perceive other people's opinions. So basically, I've been in lockdown for years now!"

 

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