It’s been almost three decades since “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)” — a novelty dance track featuring rapid, part-rapped, part-scatted and mostly nonsensical rhymes — shot to the top of music charts around the world, especially in Europe. Now, the man behind the song is getting the biopic treatment.

John Larkin — better known by his stage name Scatman John — passed away from cancer in 1999 at the age of 57 — just five years after his most famous track was first released. But international production banner Trick Candle Productions has acquired the rights to his life story and is developing Scatman, set to chronicle the musician’s “wild life and positive influence.”

Written by Stephen Basilone (Community, The Goldbergs) and Annie Mebane (The Goldbergs, Shrinking), the film — which will include unparalleled access to the entire Scatman music library, as well as private home videos — will detail Larkin’s struggles with being a lifelong stutterer, bullying, abuse at home,...