[5] He stated he was an outsider as a child in Germany, being called "Kunta Kinte" (the African hero in the film Roots) by his classmates.

[6] After leaving his adoptive home as a teen, Pilatus worked as a model and breakdancer,[5] and appeared as a backing singer with the group Wind at the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest in Brussels.

He met Fab Morvan on the dance scene in Munich in 1988, and after working as models, they formed a short lived group "Empire Bizarre" which consisted of three members, Pilatus, Morvan, and Charliene,[clarification needed] who released one single "Dansez" in 1988[7] and was performing locally with all members dancing and Rob singing lead while playing bass guitar.

They initially refused, but were unable to pay back the advance they had received, which they had used to change and promote their images by investing in clothes and their trademark hair extensions.

This meant that they were to be only the public faces[11] for songs that had been pre-recorded with singers Charles Shaw and Brad Howell, who Farian thought were vocally talented but lacked marketable images.

[15] Milli Vanilli quickly rose to fame and fortune, making it difficult for Pilatus and Morvan to withdraw from their agreement with Farian.

Charles Shaw, one of their recordings' actual vocalists, told the media the truth, but retracted his statement when Farian paid him $150,000.

Months after the media backlash, they appeared in a commercial for Carefree Sugarless [chewing] Gum, where they jokingly lip-synched to an opera recording.

[25] The movie stars Tijan Njie and Elan Ben Ali as Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan as well as Matthias Schweighöfer as music producer Frank Farian.

In 2011 German director Florian Gallenberger declared that he was reviving the project and would be rewriting the script, which also didn't eventually happen.