Spike Lee‘s last two films have been examinations of police brutality, how America failed Black people during the Vietnam war and beyond, and the cloud of white supremacy that has always hung over the country. His next film will be about…viagra. And it’s a musical.
Talk about doing a 180. After finally winning an Oscar for BlacKkKlansman, and with this year’s Da 5 Bloods expected to be in the awards race too, Lee has decided to make a musical about the little blue pill.
It’s based on David Kushner‘s Esquire article All Rise: The Untold Story of The Guys Who Launched Viagra, which will be adapted by Lee and British playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah.
Viagra was actually originally created to treat chest pain, but it was first introduced as a remedy for erectile dysfunction by pharmaceutical company Pfizer in 1998. Unsurprisingly, sales exploded, with men taking it both recreationally and for legitimate medical problems.
Pfizer remains in the news because it’s one of the leading pharmaceutical companies trying to develop a potential vaccine for COVID-19, but they probably wouldn’t be around had they not invented viagra (or Sildenafil, as it’s technically called).
It’s not that a musical about viagra doesn’t sound interesting – I mean, how could it not? – it’s just that Lee would have probably been one of the last directors expected to be involved with this sort of project. Although he did just direct David Byrne‘s concert film American Utopia for HBO Max, so maybe he was inspired by that to do something musical again.
The original songs and music for the film will be written by Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald, creators of the Tony Award-winning musical Passing Strange. Lee will produce via his 0 Acres And A Mule Filmworks along with Matt Jackson (The Trial Of The Chicago 7) of Jackson Pictures. eOne are overseeing the project.
Anything Lee makes is always worth checking out. For this film that will be especially true. Just don’t expect this musical to be compared to La La Land much.
#Peace.Love.SpikeLee
