Acclaimed director Spike Lee has set his sights on his latest project, a movie musical based on the rise of boner pills.
It’s just been announced that the next Spike Lee Joint will detail the rise of Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction supplement, Viagra.
Currently untitled, the film will revolve around true events surrounding the pharmaceutical company’s pivot – with Viagra first being an experiential heart-related chest pain treatment before later becoming a secret spice for sex lives once its “side effect” of longlasting erections was labelled.
The source material for the musical is David Kushner’s Esquire piece All Rise: The Untold Story of The Guys Who Launched Viagra. The article outlines the story of two Pfizer employees: Rooney Nelson, a young Jamaican marketer, and Sal ‘Dr Sal’ Giorgianni, a pharmacist who would become Viagra’s medical expert.
Together, Nelson and Dr Sal flipped the script on the heart-treatment pills, started a $3billion erectile-dysfunction industry, and become heroes to millions of floppy penises all around the world.
So…the Viagra story I wrote for @esquire is being turned into a Spike Lee musical. https://t.co/1WDfYoEvQi
— David Kushner (@davidkushner) November 17, 2020
With Spike Lee killing every genre he touches – from biopics to comedies – this will be his latest foray into musicals, after this year releasing his cinematic adaptation of David Byrne’s American Utopia. Lee will also be co-writing the script with British playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, the current artistic director of London’s Young Vic theatre.
In a quote to Deadline on the new prospect, Spike wrote:
“First And Foremost, I Thank Ms. Jacquelyn Shelton Lee. I Thank My Late Mother For As She Would Say Taking “My Narrow,Rusty Behind” Dragging, Kickin’ And Screamin’ To The Movies When I Wuz A Nappy Headed Kid Growing Up In Da Streets Of Da People’s Republic Of Brooklyn.
“I Did Not Want To See Corny People Singin’ And Dancin’. I Instead Wanted To Play With My Friends On Da Block, Stoop Ball, Stick Ball, Punch Ball, Soft Ball, Basketball, 2 Hand Touch, Tackle Football, Coco Leevio, Johnny On Da Pony, Hot Peas And Butter, Crack Top, Down Da Sewer And Of Course-Booty’s Up. All The Great New York City Street Games That Might Be Sadly Lost Forever.
“My Father, Bill Lee, Jazz/Folk Bassist,Composer HATED HollyWeird Movies, Henceforth And What Not, Me Being The Eldest Of 5 Children I Became Mommy’s Movie Date. She Was A Cinefile. 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.”
