Spike Lee is set to direct and co-write a musical about the development of popular erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.
Yes, you read that right.
Lee and his co-writer, British playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, have adopted the Esquire article “All Rise: The Untold Story of the Guys Who Launched Viagra” by writer David Kushner. The piece, published in September 2018, charted the development of Viagra by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer from a drug designed to help stop heart-related chest pain to discovering one of its more beneficial side effects.
Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald, who created the Tony-winning musical Passing Strange, will be creating the original songs and music for this untitled project.
While Lee has never directed a straight-up musical film, he did direct the film recording of the recent Broadway hit David Byrne’s American Utopia (see our review here). In that, he managed to do a great job capturing that show’s energy and staging, so based on this it seems that he has demonstrated some skills for this upcoming project.
Via Deadline.
