Spike Lee to direct musical movie about miracle drug Viagra

PTI, Nov 18, 2020, 8:16 PM IST

Los Angeles: Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee will be directing a musical film about the origins of Viagra.

The untitled movie is inspired by the true events around Pfizer’s launch of the erectile dysfunction drug, reported Entertainment Weekly.

It is based on the Esquire article “All Rise: The Untold Story of The Guys Who Launched Viagra” by David Kushner.

Lee is co-writing the film’s screenplay in collaboration with British playwright and actor Kwame Kwei-Armah.

The story surrounds around Pfizer’s discovery and launch of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (Sildenafil), which was hatched as a treatment for heart-related chest pain only for researchers to find its game-changing qualities occurred below the belt. The little blue pill had immediate staying power in the global marketplace, perking up sex lives around the world, as per the official plotline.

The original songs and music will be written by the acclaimed songwriting team of Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald, who previously created the Tony-winning musical “Passing Strange.”

Matt Jackson’s Jackson Pictures will produce with Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks.

Joanne Lee and Kushner will rise to the occasion as executive producers.

Lee, who won an Oscar for the Best Adapted Screenplay in 2019 for “BLackKlansman,” most recently directed Netflix movie “Da 5 Bloods,” featuring late actor Chadwick Boseman,” and a filmed version of David Byrne’s “American Utopia” for HBO.