Steven Spielberg Talks About the Scrapped George and Ira Gershwin Film He'd Planned to Work on With Colman Domingo

Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day, is in theaters now, and it was the third film in which the director was able to work with actor Colman Domingo, but it could have been the fourth.

In a recent chat with Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast, Spielberg was the intro guest ahead of her conversation with Colman Domingo. Spielberg has long sung the praises of the actor, so he seemed like a good person to introduce his friend to the podcast.

Spielberg said that he and Domingo have known each other for many years, working on the films Lincoln, and The Color Purple. But the Academy Award-winning director had a project in the works years earlier that would have centered the actor.

Spielberg wanted to make a movie about George and Ira Gershwin, and the creation of their classic opera Porgy and Bess. He had secured a script and was involved in the casting process when Colman Domingo auditioned.

“I was going to make a movie about Ira and George Gershwin, and I was going to make a movie about the process of writing and staging Porgy and Bess,” Spielberg explained. He said he met many actors while searching for Todd Duncan, who originated the role of Porgy, but after meeting Domingo, he knew he wanted him for the part.

The project itself centered on a disabled Black beggar from Charleston who sets out to save Bess from her abusive, drug-dealing partner. The story traces its roots back to the work of Dorothy and DuBose Heyward and later inspired the 1959 movie starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge.

Even though much of the cast had already come together, Spielberg said he started having “second thoughts” late in the process. He eventually decided to walk away from the film, explaining that this was the only reason Colman and he “didn’t work together then.”

But they ended up having a great working relationship, and have made several great stories together since.

via: SuperHeroHype