The story of lip-synching early 90s duo Milli Vanilli is tailor-made for some kind of rise and fall biopic, and that exact project has been in the works at least since 2007, though you know at least a few ambitious producers have been eyeing the rights from the moment their Grammy was taken away in 1990. Now after years in development, a writer-director has finally boarded the project-- according to Deadline, German Oscar-winner Florian Gallenberger will take the reins and start writing a script immediately.

Gallenberger won the Oscar for Best Live-Action short in 2000, and also directed the German feature film John Rabe, which starred Steve Buscemi and won four German FIlm Awards in 2009 (no, I have no idea why I've never heard of this movie before). The Milli Vanilli story also has significant German connections-- the man who put them together in the first place was German-born Frank Farian; he's also the guy who exposed the lip-synching scandal when it became too obvious to ignore. The project sounds like a great debut for Gallenberger as he begins his American movie career; casting speculation about how might play the Milli Vanilli guys themselves begins now!