A new music flick is in the works that will follow the story of one of the biggest bombshells to ever hit the industry.
Rush Hour trilogy and X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner is getting set to make his return with a film based on the rise and fall of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus -- best known as the late-'80s/'90s pop duo Milli Vanilli.
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Kevin Liles, who was a co-writer on the duo's hit "Girl You Know It's True" and surviving Milli Vanilli member Fab Morvan's longtime manager Kim Marlowe are involved as executive producers. Rob passed in April of 1998 from an apparent accidental overdose.
Christoph Walz is said to be in consideration to play the group's founder, Frank Farian, while Omar Cy and the twin French dancers Les Twins (Laurent and Larry Nicolas Bourgeois) have been suggested to portray the Milli Vanilli members.
"Step by step, the turtle continues the race and will definitely finish it," Morvan posted on his Instagram page upon the news of the project, tagging Ratner. "Patience is a virtue. Anything is possible don’t ever give up on yourself it’s your life," he continued.
The story of the group is a complicated one. Chosen by Farian to be the faces of his musical project after being discovered as dancers in Germany, Rob and Fab were brought to the states to front the group, which eventually earned a Best New Artist GRAMMY. Farian famously revealed that the duo never sang on any of the records after a hard drive skipping issue outed them in 1989 during a performance for MTV.
This marks a return to music-centric projects for Ratner, who in the past has directed videos for RUN DMC, Michael Jackson, JAY-Z, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Wu Tang Clan, and many more.
Ratner, who was accused by seven women of sexual misconduct in 2017 leading Warner Bros to cut ties with the director, was slammed recently in a statement by the Time's Up Foundation, which says he should not be allowed this comeback.
"TIME'S UP was born out of the national reckoning on workplace sexual harassment,” said president and CEO of the Time's Up Foundation, Tina Tchen. "Our movement is a product of countless courageous acts by many survivors, including those who spoke out about what they endured at the hands of Brett Ratner."
Tchen continued, "Not only did Ratner never acknowledge or apologize for the harm he caused, but he also filed lawsuits in an attempt to silence the voices of survivors who came forward – a tactic right out of the predator’s playbook. You don’t get to go away for a couple years and then resurface and act like nothing happened. We have not – and will not – forget. And Millennium Media shouldn’t either. There should be no comeback. #wewontforgetbrett."
In the days since the announcement was first made, production company Millennium Media has dropped the project, as a reaction to the fallout following the news. "On the heels of the announcement of the long gestating Milli Vanilli movie, the project fielded multiple competitive bids and a group of private equity investors have emerged that are fully financing the movie to begin production shortly," they shared in a statement, going on to say they not, "be involved in the production."
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