Melanie Chisholm, better known as Mel C, has revealed that the Spice Girls now “fully own” the rights to their iconic 1997 film, Spice World, with plans to make it available for streaming in the near future.
The singer, known as Sporty Spice, starred alongside bandmates Geri Halliwell, Melanie “Mel B” Brown, Victoria Beckham, and Emma Bunton in the cult classic, which saw the pop stars playing fictionalised versions of themselves as they prepared for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
The film is celebrated for its surreal humour and memorable moments, including a scene where Lady Beckham drives a bus with a bomb over an opening Tower Bridge. It also featured a host of celebrity cameos from figures such as Sir Elton John, Sir Roger Moore, Meat Loaf, Elvis Costello, Sir Stephen Fry, Richard E Grant, and Jools Holland.
Speaking on the Louis Theroux Podcast, Mel C, 52, explained the complexities behind the film’s current unavailability. “It’s not available at the moment. It will be, because there were a lot of people that owned it. It was kind of all over the place.
So we’ve had to come together,” she stated. “The Spice Girls now fully own it, so we will be presenting it at some point in hopefully the not-too-distant future for people to enjoy.” The comedy musical, which includes flashbacks and dream sequences, also depicted the group grappling with the pressures of fame and a smear campaign.
Beyond the film’s future, Chisholm offered candid insights into the internal dynamics of the world-famous girl group, particularly highlighting the leadership roles played by Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown.
She credited their drive and outspoken nature as crucial to the band’s immense success. “If it wasn’t for Geri and Melanie being the way that they are, we wouldn’t have been as successful as we were,” she remarked, noting Halliwell’s intelligence and creativity, and Brown’s prior experience as a dancer.
However, this dynamic was not without its challenges, especially when the two strong personalities clashed.
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Chisholm elaborated: “Getting into the inner workings of the band, like any group of people there’s a dynamic, and what was difficult for us was that Melanie (Melanie Brown) and Geri were really great mates, but if they had a fallout, it would affect everybody.” She added that their more outspoken nature meant “myself, Emma, and Victoria, we didn’t have as much airtime as the other two girls… So that would cause issues sometimes.”
Despite these occasional tensions, Chisholm emphasised the group’s ability to “self-police” one another, ensuring everyone remained grounded amidst their meteoric rise to fame.
She described this as a tough but ultimately beneficial process. “It was tough sometimes because we were really hard on each other. Not hard on each other in a mean way, but just like if someone was acting up a little bit, we’d just pull them back into the fold,” she said.
This collective effort, she believes, was instrumental in preserving their bond. “It saved us in the long term. We are very proud that we remained friends. We’ve had our ups and downs, but no-one’s gone completely off the rails at any point really,” Chisholm concluded, reflecting on the enduring friendship that has spanned decades.
The full interview is available on The Louis Theroux Podcast.
