Lee Daniels plans musical biopic

OHMYGOSSIP — Lee Daniels is working on a film about his life.
The ‘Empire’ creator thinks his story is “interesting” and will play out well on screen, especially because he is planning for the production to be a musical.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “My publicist will kill me, but I’m in talks about doing a musical film about my life. I’ve had a pretty interesting life. I’ve come from the projects. I’ve been homeless. It’ll have original music and sort of be like Fellini’s ‘8 1/2’ or ‘All That Jazz’.”
But his own biopic isn’t the only musical Lee is planning.
The ‘Butler’ director has been working on new TV show ‘Star’ with Queen Latifah, and having been influenced by ‘Paris Is Burning’ – which examined drag ball culture – for the series, he is now keen to make a musical based on the 1990 documentary film.
He said: “We’re shooting the second episode [of ‘Star’]. I just left a rehearsal for a vogue number.
“That performance that Teyana Taylor did at the MTV Video Music Awards? Well, we’re going to get down in the dirt with mine.
“You’ll see the girls with the gay boys voguing in a way [TV audiences] have yet to see. It will be very much like ‘Paris Is Burning’, which influenced me growing up. I told Queen Latifah that we should remake ‘Paris Is Burning’ as a musical.”
The 56-year-old producer-and-director has seen ‘Empire’ move into a third season but he admitted he was surprised by his success and left struggling during the first series as he and his team weren’t prepared for it to do well beyond a pilot episode.
He admitted: “We were not prepared for the hit. I was set to do the Richard Pryor biopic, and I didn’t think the pilot was going to get picked up.
“So then we had to scramble for story for 12 episodes. Then we were shocked when the ratings kept climbing and climbing. And then they picked us up for 18 episodes.
“You try writing 18 episodes of story and music. That s**t’s crazy! It was a tsunami hitting me.”

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