According to The Hollywood Reporter, the next feature directorial project for Lee Daniels (Precious, The Butler, Empire) could be Billie, a biopic of iconic singer Billie Holiday. R&B singer Andra Day (Marshall, Cars 3) is reportedly being circled to portray Holiday, while actor Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out, Death Note, Atlanta) is also being courted to take the male lead.
Known for both jazz stylings and pop numbers, Holiday’s career spanned thirty years, though difficulties with alcohol and drugs led to her early death in 1959 at the age of 44. Nicknamed “Lady Day,” some of her most famous tracks include renditions of “God Bless the Child,” “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and the haunting American racism protest song “Strange Fruit.” Holliday’s iconic songs have been used in hundreds of films and TV series, including Stranger Things, Watchmen, Murder on the Orient Express and This Is Us, and a 1972 biopic of her titled Lady Sings the Blues starred Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams.
Daniels will direct Billie from a screenplay by Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan Lori-Parks (Girl 6, Their Eyes Were Watching God) for producers Joe Roth and Jeff Kirshenbaum. The project does not currently have a studio attached.
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