‘NSync, Backstreet Boys Tapped for Lou Pearlman Documentary
Members of ‘NSync and the Backstreet Boys will participate in a new documentary about the notorious boy band impresario, Lou Pearlman. The film, tentatively titled The Lou Pearlman Project, is expected to premiere on YouTube Red this year.
The film will chronicle Perlman’s remarkable rise and fall, from one of the most powerful players in the music industry to a convicted felon. The Lou Pearlman Project will feature extensive interviews with members of Pearlman’s biggest acts including ‘NSync’s J.C. Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass, the Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel and Aaron Carter, solo artist and brother of the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter. Bass’ mother Diane Bass will also participate, as will Justin Timberlake’s mother, Lynn Bomar Harless.
“I’ve always wanted to tell the story of the rise and fall of Lou Pearlman; I thought I knew most of the story since I had a front row seat,” said Bass, who will also serve as an executive producer. “I was fascinated to learn so much more through the eyes of other artists that were also subjected to Pearlman and his nefarious operation.”
Pearlman built his boy band empire in the mid-Nineties, forming pop heavyweights the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync, and managing similar groups like LFO, Take 5 and O-Town. His career was undone, however, by shady business practices, and in 2008 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for overseeing a $300 million Ponzi scheme. Pearlman was also dogged by allegations of molestation and abuse, which first surfaced in a 2007 Vanity Fair profile. He died in 2016 at the age of 62.
A release date for the documentary has yet to be announced.