Drug company Pfizer is currently attached to one of the COVID-19 vaccines currently in production – but that’s not the product from the manufacturer’s extensive catalog which is getting the Hollywood treatment. Instead, actor and film director Spike Lee has confirmed that his next project will be a musical film about the history of male performance enhancement drug Viagra.
Lee will serve as the director, while playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah will write the script. The score will be written by the team of Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald, who previously worked together on Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Passing Strange. Production will be a joint effort between Jackson Pictures and Lee’s own 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. No cast has yet been attached to the project.
The musical is reportedly inspired by David Kushner’s Esquire article, All Rise: The Untold Story of the Guys Who Launched Viagra, which first appeared in September 2018. The article explains how Viagra was originally intended to treat chest pain potentially related to heart failures, but was re-launched under new branding when it was discovered to have greater effectiveness as an erectile dysfunction drug. Kushner himself will serve as an executive producer on the film.
In a statement to Deadline, Lee credited his late mother, Jacquelyn Shelton Lee, as the person who helped him discover musicals. He admitted that he did not enjoy musicals as a child, but often ended up accompanying his mother to the movie theater to see them. In Lee’s own words: “Thank You Lawdy She Didn’t Listen To My Ongoing Complaints About Musicals. So Finally Going Into My 4th Decade As A Filmmaker I Will Be Directing A DANCIN’,ALL SINGIN’ MUSICAL Spike Lee Joint And I Can’t Wait. My Moms Has Been Waiting TOO!!! And Dats Da Rodgers And Hammerstein Truth, Ruth.”
The project does not yet have a title, though we’ve got to admit that All Rise is pretty darn catchy.