HBO Documentary Films has acquired North American rights to The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Documentary Films has acquired North American rights to The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart. 

 

The feature documentary, which was an official selection of the 2020 Telluride Film Festival before it was scratched by the pandemic, tells the story of an iconic band that is way more than a symbol of the polyester disco era from when their soundtrack fueled Saturday Night Fever. 

 That was just one part of their evolution as musicians, and Frank Marshall has directed an intimate look at siblings Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb. They wrote more than 1,000 songs, including twenty number one hits throughout their career. The film will premiere on HBO later this year and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

 Pic is a Polygram Entertainment presentation of a Kennedy/Marshall and White Horse Pictures production in association with Diamond Docs;. Marshall produced alongside Nigel Sinclair and Jeanne Elfant Festa, and Mark Monroe, latter of whom wrote the script. Their collective credits include HBO’s The Apollo, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, HBO’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, and Icarus.

“Like so many people, I’ve loved the Bee Gees’ music all my life,” said Marshall, “But discovering their uncanny creative instincts and the treasure trove of music, their humor, and loyalty was a great two-year journey. We are very happy and proud to be with HBO, and it has been an honor to work on this project.”

“It’s an honor to tell the story of the Bee Gees – as brothers, as superstars and iconic songwriters – and to shine a light on their incredible career and the global impact of their music,” said Executive Producer and Chairman/CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group, Jody Gerson.

Said Sinclair: “This is a story of how three brothers with paramount musical gifts created music that touched the collective unconscious across five continents for five decades straight,” said. “It is brotherhood and family, creativity, entertainment, joy, and tragedy. We all feel very privileged to be involved.”

The Bee Gees story with all their tunes, has been catnip and aside from a stage musical project with Barry Gibb, Elisabeth Murdoch and Stacey Snider at Sister are teamed with Steven Spielberg and Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King and scribe Anthony McCarten are developing with Paramount a big Bee Gees narrative film.

 The docu is exec produced by David Blackman, Jody Gerson, Steve Barnett, Nicholas Ferrall, Cassidy Hartmann, Ryan Suffern. The story consultant is Cassidy Hartmann

 source Deadline.com

 

The Bee Gees Hits and Memories Special,

Michael Jackson was secretly living at Barry Gibb?

Barry revealed Jackson was a regular visitor and actually moved in with him and his family.

 Speaking back in 2014, he told The Mirror: “He would come to Miami and stay in our house. He’d sit in the kitchen and watch the fans outside his hotel on TV, just giggling – ‘Hee hee!’ He lived upstairs for a while.”

 Barry explained it was in the early 2000s before Jackson was put on trial on child molestation charges. He insisted he never talked about the court case with his new housemate. 

The singer went on: “[It was] right before his child-molestation trial for numerous children. We never discussed the case.”

 The Bee Gees star also revealed Jackson was fond of booze and would often get so drunk he’d pass out on the floor. 

He added: “We would just sit around and write and get drunk. Michael liked wine – there were a few nights when he just went to sleep on the floor.” 

 Jackson would often book a hotel room in the city but would stay with Barry instead and the singer insisted he never saw the star unhappy.

 Barry went on to say how the pair indulged in wine together, and sometimes Michael didn’t even make it to bed. 

 They were such good friends that Barry named one of his children after the singer, and the King Of Pop became Godfather to little Michael Gibb. 

In a statement released after Jackson’s death in 2009, Barry wrote: “We are devastated”. 

Robin Gibb added: “We’ve not only lost a great friend in Michael but also lost a wonderful sensitive human being.”

 Barry said the group was “devastated” in a statement released after the hitmaker’s death in June 2009.