The story of the Grammy-winning pop duo from the early 90s, Milli Vanilli, will finally be told in film. The two men quickly rose to fame in the late 80s, only to have their awards and praise taken away from them when they were revealed to be lip-synching all of their songs. Deadline reports that Oscar-winning director Florian Gallenberger has signed on to write and direct MILLI VANILLI. Gallenberger won the Academy Award for his short film QUIER SER and recently won several German film awards for his movie JOHN RABE, starring Steve Buscemi.
As it turns out, the Milli Vanilli story is very German related. Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, the two that comprised Milli Vanilli, “were hired by German record producer Frank Farian to front a group he’d put together locally. Farian had the singers and the songs, but wanted a certain look to put it over the top. He found that when he spotted model/dancer pals Pilatus and Morvan on the dance floor of a club in Munich. They soared to the top of the charts with songs like Blame It On The Rain and Girl You Know It’s True, and looked perfect in the MTV videos. That was until evidence began to mount that they were phonies. It began with a whispering campaign, and then grew after a live appearance when a recording they were “singing” onstage began repeated phrases over and over, and they finally ran off stage.
Pilatus and Morvan by then were anxious to stop the charade, but when they refused to promote a followup album unless they were allowed to really sing, Farian instead exposed the charade. By then, they’d sold millions of records and won a Grammy Award. That trophy was rescinded, class action lawsuits were filed, and the act was dropped from the roster of Arista Records. The guys, clearly in over their heads and terrified so long for living a lie, were demoralized and shamed. It wore hardest on Pilatus, who became a drug addict and served time for robbery. He seemed to have cleaned up his act but right before a reunion album with Morvan could be released, he died from a drug overdose.”
The whole tale behind the two sounds like it was written for Hollywood. It’s a tragic tale that will most likely do very well at the box office. Many young people, like myself, that have heard of Milli Vanilli might not know what the whole story is behind the lip-synching duo and what became of them after their careers were revealed to be a sham.
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