Spike Lee in Negotiations for PORGY AND BESS Film Adaptation

According to Indiewire, Spike Lee wants to make a film adaptation of the George Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess and has confirmed that negotiations are "still in the works." The Tony Award-winning revival starring Norm Lewis, Audra McDonald and David Alan Grier is currently playing on Broadway.

"There have been musical elements in my films," Lee told Indiwire, "but I've been wanting to do a straight up musical for many, many years."

Read the original report here.

Lee has been attempting to create a movie version of the musical for more than a decade but has struggled to move forward due to complicated negotiations with the Gershwin estate.

Indiewire reports that Lee's battle with the estate isn't a new one. The 1959 version of the film, starring Sydney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Pearl Bailey, had its first director Rouben Mamoulian fired and replaced by Otto Preminger. Displeased with the final product, the Gershwin estate denied the film's release in 1974.

Lee's next film Red Hook Summer opens this Friday, August 10, 2012.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski

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