All the classic stories to emerge from the world of music – Ray, Walk The Line, Great Balls Of Fire – share certain elements: struggle, drug use and relationship problems.
But none have the sheer comedy value of the Milli Vanilli story. Some of you might not be old enough to remember (damn kids), but there was a time when most music wasn’t over-produced fake nonsense. Which is why, when the Milli Vanilla scandal broke, it caused such a stir.
Record producer Frank Farian needed a couple of decent-looking blokes to be the public face of songs he already had recorded. Step forward Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus, who agreed to mime to the music.
Things turned sour when the group became a hit, shot to the top of the charts and sold millions. But when the pair decided they wanted to take control and sing on the next album themselves, Farian called their bluff and then picked up the phone to the press, blowing the scandal wide open. And there’s even the customary emotional finale – Morvan and Pilatus were plotting a comeback in 1998 when Pilatus died.
Jeff Nathanson – who has a little experience with fraudsters, having penned Catch Me If You Can – will write the script for Universal.
"I've always been fascinated by the notion of fakes and frauds, and in this case, you had guys who pulled off the ultimate con, selling 30 million singles and 11 million albums and then becoming the biggest laughing-stocks of pop entertainment," he blabbed to Variety . "Fabrice had always refused to sell their rights, he was very cautious of Hollywood after all he'd been through. But my intention is to tell this story from their point of view."
Here’s our question – who’ll do the singing on the soundtrack album?
Source: ( Variety )
