Producers Mike Medavoy and Bobby Geisler Developing Updated PORGY AND BESS Film

According to Variety, producers Mike Medavoy and Bobby Geisler are developing a revamped film version of The Gershwins' opera Porgy and Bess. Medavoy and Geisler are collaborating with the Gershwin family and lyricist DuBose Heyward's estate for the updated film.

"We get approached a lot with ideas that aren't very good," Marc George Gershwin, nephew of George and Ira Gershwin, told Variety, "but Mike has a great track record. We're confident that he's going to be able to find the right director and writer. And we already have the music."

Read the original report here.

The opera debuted on Broadway in 1935 and starred an African American cast, directed by Rouben Mamoulian. The 1959 film version, starring Sydney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Pearl Bailey, had originally signed Mamoulian on as director, but he was later fired and replaced by Otto Preminger. Displeased with the final product, the Gershwin estate denied the film's release in 1974.

The original 1935 Broadway production of Porgy and Bess closed after just 124 performances. A slightly more successful 1942 revival was followed by a national tour and another revival in 1953. The most recent production -- last year's Tony Award-winning Broadway revival -- starred Norm Lewis, Audra McDonald and David Alan Grier.

Medavoy's other film producing credits include The Thin Red Line (with Geisler), Zodiac, Shutter Island and BLACK SWAN.