Backstreet’s Back: Boy Band Doc To Make Theatrical, VOD Debut

Gravitas Ventures wants it that way. The distributor has acquired North American theatrical, VOD, and DVD rights to documentary Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of, from Stones in Exile and Scott Walker: 30th Century Man director Stephen Kijak. Pic chronicles two years in the lives of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson, the boy banders who rose to pop stardom with 1996’s eponymous debut album Backstreet Boys, paving the way for the likes of *NSYNC, 98 Degrees, and other favorites of the Tiger Beat set. But in Littrell’s own words, “From 1992 to 2002 we were the biggest band in the world… Then it just stopped. And what do you do when you’re a full grown man in a boy band?”

Indeed. Despite selling 130 million records, going gold and platinum in 46 countries, and earning eight Grammy nods, the boy band bubble burst for Littrell & Co. in 2000 after peaking with Millennium. Kijak’s film teases an intimate reveal of “new and old tensions that need confronting and resolving” as the quintet relive their glory days.

All five members produced the Pulse Films, K-Bahn LLC and Missing in Action Films production along with Mia Bays. Sam Sniderman, Jeff Kwatinetz and Jennifer Sousa are exec producers. Pic hits U.S. theaters and VOD on January 30 before London’s More2Screen rolls it out worldwide on February 26, and will make its broadcast debut in Spring 2015 via VH1. Gravitas Founder and CEO Nolan Gallagher negotiated the deal with WME Global and Sam Sniderman and Paul Grindey for Pulse.