Gershwin fans, "It Ain't Necessarily So," but according to Deadline Hollywood Daily, Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto has been picked by Dreamworks to play the role of George Gershwin in a musical biopic based on the New York songwriter. Composer of many jazz standards, along with brilliant pieces like "Rhapsody in Blue" and various Broadway musicals, Gershwin died at the age of 38 on July 11, 1937. The studio has apparently been supplying Quinto with dialogue and accent coaches, to help him prepare for a tentative shooting date that could be as early as April 2010.
A script has been written by Doug Wright (Quills) and Marc Platt and Michael Feinstein are producing.
At the same time, it is said that director Steven Spielberg has been considering his own involvement with the film. As some of you may know, he was originally supposed to direct a remake of the Jimmy Stewart movie Harvey for Dreamworks, but that fell through. Says Deadline Hollywood: "A DreamWorks insider says this is one of three projects Spielberg is looking at for his next pic because he's anxious to get back to work."
Whether Spielberg decides to helm this Gershwin biopic or not, it's very apparent that he'll be back in the director's chair sometime very soon.
What do you think? Does Quinto have the chops to play the famous pianist, and is Spielberg the right guy to just lumber into the director's chair and present Gershwin's life? What other directors can you imagine for the job? If we're talking dream directors, I'll throw Nine's Rob Marshall into the hat. Sure, this project wouldn't be a flashy musical, but he could certainly bring some aesthetic vibrancy to what could be a typical story arc (see: almost every musical biopic in the last five years).
Source: Deadline Hollywood