We had a great interview with David Leaf where Maurice says, “I’m the peacemaker.” That showed how he fit into the brothers, so it was important to have them not only talk about the songwriting and and the music, but also about being brothers. It was important for me to introduce each brother and how they fit into the group. Maurice and Robin, and even Andy, would have had different memories and different perceptions of what went on on. As he says at the beginning, these are just his memories and his perceptions. It was important to Barry that we include all of the brothers personalities and not just his. If it didn’t move the story forward with one of those two things I said, “OK, we don’t need that.” Did you find it challenging to tell both the narrative of the band and each brother individually? The main theme was about songwriting and family. I couldn’t include everything, but we had the heart of the story. ![]() Actually, there’s probably a five-part series there because they had so many ups and downs in their career. That’s one of the hard things to do - decide what to keep in or not. ![]() How do you decide what parts of their life to include and which to omit? I knew a lot about “Saturday Night Fever,” but I didn’t really know about the early days - how they grew up and where they grew up and how they became singers together and that whole family dynamic that started actually in Brisbane, Australia, where they had a dream about being a musical group. How much did you know about the Bee Gees before you began your research? The more I talked to him, the more amazing I found the story of the Bee Gees to be. And he understood that I had a music sense to things. We were both born in September of 1946 so we had a lot of things in common. I really mostly talked about being the older brother, and amazingly enough we’re only 12 days apart in age. It all came together, being in the right place and the right time. We met in Steve’s office there at Capitol Records. I said, “I love the Bee Gees, what about them?” He said, “Let’s see if we can make it happen.” A couple of weeks later, Barry Gibb had come out to attend the Grammys, were honoring him and the Bee Gees. They were looking to reinvigorate some catalogs, and they just had bought the Bee Gees catalog. We started talking about artists that they had. When I went to visit Steve Barnett, who was the CEO of Capitol Records, about four years ago, I was telling stories about being in the building. My dad was a guitar player-composer-arrange r and he worked at Capitol Records. What specifically drew you to the story of the Bee Gees and made you want to direct this documentary? Following the documentary’s release, Marshall discusses why he wanted to step behind the camera and what he hopes audiences take from the Bee Gee’s story. Marshall has produced dozens of popular films over the years - a list that includes “Raiders of the Lost Arc,” “The Color Purple” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic World” - but he’s only ever directed a handful of movies. I wanted to explore how this kind of musical relationship happened.” Though Maurice and Robin died years back, leaving Barry as the only living Gibb brother, Marshall says it was “key” to make sure all three siblings are featured equally in the documentary. “I assume they spent all this time in music school or with vocal coaches,” Marshall told Variety for the “Doc Dreams” series presented by National Geographic. The documentary incorporates archival concert footage, past interviews and fresh conversations with musicians like Eric Clapton, Noel Gallagher and Nick Jonas to capture several decades - spanning from their first hit with “New York Mining Disaster 1941” to the creation of “Stayin’ Alive” for the record-setting “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.Īs he delved deeper into the backstory of the Bee Gees, Marshall says he was struck by the effortless musical talents of the brothers. It captures both the creative excitement that propelled them to the top of the charts, as well as the struggles with drugs and fame that nearly derailed them. Marshall’s film, which premiered last month on HBO, follows the humble beginnings of brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb in Australia, as well as their journey to pop superstardom. The payoff? A documentary - “Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” - that chronicles the life and times of one of music’s greatest trios. ![]() It was “Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)” that got stuck in his head the most often. Frank Marshall estimates he spent more than 100 hours listening to Bee Gees music over the past three years.
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