Despite a pandemic permanently shutting down the industry, Spike Lee had a very busy year - he gave us the critically-acclaimed (but highly overrated) “Da 5 Bloods,” and the extraordinary David Byrne concert documentary “American Utopia.” And it looks as though he will continue to be productive in 2021 as he has just announced what his next cinematic endeavor will be.
According to Deadline, the story behind the invention of Viagra will be tackled by Lee, and, not just that, it’ll be told via the musical genre. Tackling the discovery of that little blue pill, the screenplay will be written by Lee and Kwame Kwei-Armah. The source material will David Kushner’s excellent Esquire article “All Rise: The Untold Story of The Guys Who Launched Viagra.” Inspired by Pfizer’s discovery and launch of Viagra, originally intended as a heart-related drug, the original songs will be written by Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald, creators of the Tony-winning musical “Passing Strange.”
Lee is the maverick director behind such landmarks as “Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” and “The 25th Hour.” He’s been going at it now as a director for more than 30 years. Anything he does should be paid attention to. The “BlacKkKlansman” director had a solid outing with the aforementioned movie in 2018, which was deemed a comeback of sorts after a rough 10-year stretch of films which included “Miracle at St. Anna,” “Red Hook Summer,” “Oldboy,” “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” and, to a lesser extent, “Chiraq.” Those were, maybe, the five worst movies of Lee’s career.
I presume Lee’s Viagra musical, which is set to start shooting in January, will be ready by fall 2021.
The studio has unveiled "The Angel Promise," a sweeping new content policy that bans on-screen sex, nudity, F-words and any misuse of God's name in its films.