When news first broke that Graham King, producer of the treacly Queen flick Bohemian Rhapsody, would be making a biopic about the Bee Gees, serious fans around the world screamed, “Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!” But now our hopes for a good movie are stayin’ alive, as Variety reports that Sir Kenneth Branagh has been tapped as director.
After establishing himself in the 1980s and ’90s as an actor and director of Shakespearian adaptations, Branagh became a constant presence on Hollywood sets, moving into a new phase when he helmed Marvel’s Thor in 2011. The five-time Oscar nominee’s recent credits include Murder on the Orient Express and Artemis Fowl, and if that doesn’t inspire confidence, rest assured that few filmmakers today are as qualified to make a movie about men with astoundingly good hair.
The as-yet untitled biopic will be written by Ben Elton, a veteran of the cult classic sitcom Blackadder who has also penned books for the musicals We Will Rock You and Love Never Dies. Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment will produce alongside Graham King’s GK Films, and surviving Bee Gee Barry Gibb will executive produce.
Last year, the Bee Gees were the subject of the documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. In January Gibb shared the country album Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1.
