As music biopics continue to trend post-Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, one controversial mogul will get the spotlight.
The meteoric rise and epic fall of boy band impresario Lou Pearlman — the multi-platinum-selling mogul behind the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and O-Town — will be told in Transcon, produced by Edward Pressman (Wall Street), former Village Roadshow CEO Greg Basser, luxury fashion marketing guru David Anton and hitmakers Desmond Child and Andreas Carlsson.
The latter duo — who penned several signature ’90s pop hits including Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” *NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye” and Britney Spears’ “Born to Make You Happy” — will write new music as well as integrate songs associated with Pearlman’s artists for the film’s soundtrack.
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The producers have optioned Bryan Burrough’s Vanity Fair story “Mad About the Boys” and Tyler Gray’s nonfiction book The Hit Charade to serve as the basis of the true-crime tale of glory and greed.
Affectionately known as “Big Poppa,” Pearlman also, by some estimates, swindled investors out of more than $500 million. He died in 2016 at age 62 while serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements. Pearlman “indisputably changed the course of popular music,” Pressman tells The Hollywood Reporter, before “unraveling in an unprecedented manner.”
Transcon comes on the heels of Lance Bass’ Pearlman documentary The Boy Band Con, which premiered at SXSW in March. Meanwhile, Spinning Gold, about Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, began production July 15.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.