Bee Gees movie: Release date, plot and who will play Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb

14 January 2025, 10:35

Bee Gee by the pool in 1975. Picture: Getty Images

By Mayer Nissim

After Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, there's a new wave of music biopics on the way.

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The massive success of music movies about the likes of Elton John and Freddie Mercury has helped pave the way for some new biopics.

Baz Lurhmann's Elvis followed, as did Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown, Robbie Williams as a CGI monkey, and now in production is a new film about the Bee Gees.

The band have already been the subject of a number of high-profile documentaries, including 2014's The Joy of the Bee Gees and 2020's The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.

But there's nothing quite like the drama of a proper music biopic.

There have already been some big changes behind the scene and you can bookmark this page to keep up to date on everything you need to know about the Bee Gees film as more information comes.

What is the new Bee Gees film called?

Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing - One For All Tour Live In Australia 1989

For the film, the band decided to go with one of their y excellent song titles, while avoiding anything that's been used before for a movie.

That ruled out[Saturday] 'Night Fever', 'Stayin' Alive' or 'How Can You Mend a Broken Heart'.

'Tragedy' would likely have been a bit much, and the current working title is You Should Be Dancing.

Taken from the Children of the World album, 'You Should Be Dancing' marked the group's big move into disco and not only went to number five in the UK but actually topped the Billboard Hot 100.

What is the release date of the new Bee Gees film?

Bee Gees - Tragedy (Official Music Video)

We originally thought that the film might be out by 2024, but with the director changes that obviously never happened.

Then there were more delays

"I was right up to the threshold of Bee Gees, and the studio changed the footprint," Scott told Kermode & Mayo’s Take podcast in November 2024.

"I didn't like it... hey didn't like the deal, so I stepped away. I said 'Be warned, I've got another one ready'."

Scott is said to have nippeds over to 20th Century Studios too shoot The Dog Stars in the spring. He will return to the Bee Gees biopic in September 2025, all being well.

According to GQ in January 2025, the film "was written, cast, and scouted, and was scheduled to begin shooting early this year" - which would have meant a 2026-ish release date.

"The deal – the studio changed the goalposts," he said. "I said, 'You can’t do that'. They insisted. I said, 'Well, I'm going to warn you, I will walk, because I will go on to the next movie'. They didn’t believe me, and I did.

"I was being asked to go too far. And I said, 'No. Next!'. They didn't like my deal. So I said, I'll move on. I'm expensive, but I'm f**king good.”

Who is writing and directing the Bee Gees biopic?

Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly (Official Video)

Here's where things have already been very complicated

The first director bagged for the project in March 2021 was Oscar-winning thespian Kenneth Branagh, who won the 2022 screenwriting Academy Award for Belfast.

And the writer of the project was first announced as Ben Elton, who moved from stand-up to novel writing in the late 1980s before going on to write the book for stage musicals including Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Beautiful Game, Queen's We Will Rock You and Rod Stewart jukebox musical Tonight's The Night.

Watch Queen create 'We Will Rock You' in new Bohemian Rhapsody teaser

But a year later, it was all change.

In Branagh's place was John Carney, who had great musical experience with Once and Sing Street. Then came Hustlers' Lorene Scafaria in late 2022, but only briefly.

Ben Elton was out, Tony Award-winning John Logan – who has three Oscars nods for Gladiator, Hugo and The Aviator – was in.

Ridley Scott at the premiere of Alien: Covenant. Picture: Getty Images

Then in February 2024, things changed again, and in a very significant direction.

Deadline reported that none other than Ridley Scott – who has made films as massive and diverse as Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise. Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Napoleon – was in talks to direct the film.

Assuming this appointment sticks, it will have been built on Scott's relationship with longtime Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood, and will also see a reunion with screenwriter Logan after their successful work on Gladiator.

What is the Bee Gees biopic about?

Details are light on this one. We don't yet know if the film will cover the whole Bee Gees story, their rise to fame, or just their disco heyday.

What we do know is that the sole surviving Bee Gee Barry Gibb is "very involved" in the project, and will be an executive producer on the movie.

"I liked the working-class side of the Bee Gees," hinted Scott about the direction his film might take.

"It's all about competition with brothers… and then they lose Andy – Andy ODd at 30... it's more about the gift than the luck, right?... It's a fantastic story."

Who will play brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb – and Andy Gibb – in the Bee Gees film?

Again, we don't yet know who will be be cast in the film, or if the actors will have to be able to sing all those Bee Gees classics (like Taron Egerton in Rocketman) or mime along to the original recordings (like Jessica Lange in Patsy Cline film Sweet Dreams), lip synch to new versions of the classic songs (like Marion Cotillard did in La Vie en Rose), or a mixture of all those methods (like Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody).

At one stage, Bradley Cooper was linked to play Barry Gibb, which would be amazing.

What songs will feature in the Bee Gees film?

Still TBA, but we're hoping that most of our own Smooth top 20 will be in there.

We can guess that 'You Should Be Dancing' is locked in, and we're assuming 'Words', 'Night Fever', 'Tragedy', 'Stayin' Alive' and 'How Deep Is Your Love?' will appear.