While we’ve seen plenty of documentaries focused on various pop stars and bands, we really haven’t seen a lot of films that put the spotlight on the fans that have amplified certain music genres to fevered levels. Well, a new doc hopes to give the superfans of boy bands their due and explores how the revival of the boy band in the ’80s has evolved into the more modern wave of Brit-pop and K-pop groups.
Deadline reveals that Gia Coppola (“Palo Alto“) is currently in production on a new documentary called “superfans: screaming. crying. throwing up.,” which she’s directing and producing with XTR, Jason Bateman‘s Aggregate Films, and her own her company Detour.
The new doc aims to celebrate the culture-shifting influence of boy band superfans and is directly based on Maria Sherman’s “Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands From NKOTB To BTS. A book by the journalist and life-long fangirl that dives into the fangirl experiences, movements, and markets of the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s, spotlighting the devoted girls, women and queer fans who have turned boy bands into a billion-dollar phenomenon. Those bands include New Edition, New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, One Direction, and BTS.
“I’m a proud pop fangirl, so the opportunity to translate Maria’s contemporary, sharp, fun book into documentary form, a format I’ve been craving to dabble in, is beyond exciting,” said Coppola in a statement for the film’s announcement. “I’m thrilled for the collaboration between the experienced creative partners at Aggregate and XTR.”
Coppola’s previous credits include “Palo Alto” and her second feature “Mainstream” which starred Andrew Garfield and Maya Hawke along with her next project “The Seven Faces of Jane.” The anthology film consists of multiple shorts from a group of directors that also includes Roman Coppola, Xan Cassavetes, Ken Jeong, Boma Iluma, Ryan Heffington, Julian Acosta, Alex Takacs, and Gillian Jacobs.