Steven Spielberg Reveals Canceled Movie He Nearly Made With Colman Domingo

Photo Credit: @Good-Hang-with-Amy-Poehler | YouTube

Steven Spielberg has opened up about a major film he abandoned after years of development. The scrapped project would have brought him together with Colman Domingo much earlier.

The filmmaker recently shared details about a movie that almost made it to production before he changed course. Although the project never happened, it eventually led to a creative relationship with Domingo that has stretched across several films.

Steven Spielberg discusses scrapped opera movie adaptation

Speaking on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, Spielberg revealed that he once planned a movie centered on George and Ira Gershwin and the creation of Porgy and Bess. He had already secured a script and was involved in the casting process when Colman Domingo first entered the picture.

“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, Steven 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.”

Things eventually came full circle, though. Spielberg later remembered Colman Domingo and cast him as Private Harold Green in Lincoln in 2012. The two crossed paths again when Spielberg produced 2023’s The Color Purple, and more recently, they teamed up on the sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day.

So even though that earlier project never got off the ground, their collaboration was far from doomed. Spielberg also got another shot at bringing a stage musical to the big screen with West Side Story.

The post Steven Spielberg Reveals Canceled Movie He Nearly Made With Colman Domingo appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.