Spielberg Reveals Scrapped Porgy and Bess Movie
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Steven Spielberg said on the Good Hang podcast he had a script and was actively casting a film about Ira and George Gershwin writing and staging Porgy and Bess before walking away with what he called a rare 'second thought' that late in development
- Colman Domingo was Spielberg's pick to play Todd Duncan — the actor who originated Porgy in the 1935 Broadway premiere — after their first meeting, making Domingo the intended star of the shelved project
- Spielberg later remembered Domingo 'as well' as he did and cast him in 2012's Lincoln as Private Harold Green, then produced 2023's The Color Purple starring him; the two are now reunited on the upcoming alien thriller Disclosure Day
- Porgy and Bess is adapted from Dorothy and DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel and stage play, and was previously filmed as the Samuel Goldwyn-produced 1959 musical drama starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge
- Spielberg returned to stage-to-screen territory with 2021's West Side Story, which earned seven Oscar nominations and a Supporting Actress win for Ariana DeBose
Why it matters: Spielberg had already cast 'a lot of the movie' before pulling the plug — unusual for a director that deep into a project — and Domingo went on to become a two-time Oscar nominee, turning the shelved Gershwin film into a notable 'what if' just before their eventual Disclosure Day reunion.
