Universal has announced plans to make a movie based on the rise of and fall of ‘late-80s, fraudulent pop stars Milli Vanilli, who won a Grammy in 1990 for Best New Artist. However, their good fortune wouldn’t last as the award was rescinded when it was revealed — in news that shocked the pop music nation at the time — the duo did not actually sing any of the melodies on their 1989 album Girl You Know It’s True. Shocking, but true. We still bare the scars.
Jeff Nathanson, who wrote the Steven Spielberg film, “Catch Me If You Can,” which featured a similar faker in Leonardo DiCaprio’s lead character, has been hired to pen the script.
“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,” Nathanson said. “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.”
Founding member Rob Pilatus died in 1998 by an accidental overdose just months before group — which included Fab Morvan — were to mount a comeback album. [Variety]