Celebrities are doing just about everything they can to remain relevant and in the public eye during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. That means you have some people hosting talk shows via webcam, singing songs in their bedrooms, and in the case of Spike Lee, sharing full scripts for projects that will never be made.
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Recently, Spike Lee went on social media to provide a bit of entertainment for his fans by sharing the script for an unproduced biopic about the legendary baseball player, Jackie Robinson. The filmmaker not only shared the script but also gave some background on the project that dates back more than 20 years.
In his Instagram post, Lee said that the pandemic has given him a lot of time to think about “one of my dream projects.”
“I wrote a script for ‘Jackie Robinson,’” explained the filmmaker. “I wanted Denzel [Washington] to play Jackie, and Denzel said he was too old. And I pulled this script out of the vault. So, I want to share the script with you.”
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For those wondering when Lee wrote this draft, the filmmaker revealed that the script that is being made available is the fifth draft that was written in 1996.
Of course, even though Spike Lee wasn’t able to do the Jackie Robinson biopic, a film about the sports icon was eventually produced. In 2013, filmmaker Brian Helgeland wrote and directed the film, “42,” which starred future Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, as the athlete. Helgeland is the filmmaker that wrote films such as “LA Confidential,” “Mystic River,” and the recently released “Spenser Confidential.”
You can read Lee’s take on Jackie Robinson right here. You can watch Lee’s full introduction to the script below.