Lee Daniels in Talks to Direct Billie Holiday Biopic

According to Variety, Lee Daniels is in talks to direct the Billie Holiday biopic "Billie." Sources also add that R&B singer Andra Day is the top choice for the title role and Lakeith Stanfield for the male role, though nothing is yet finalized.

Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum are producing, with Pulitzer-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks penning the script. Mark Bomback had been developing this project with Roth and Kirschenbaum since its inception and is an executive producer on it. He had helped guide the development process with Daniels and Parks.

Billie Holiday, nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She is considered a legendary performer with an ongoing influence on American music. She is the recipient of four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumous awards for Best Historical Album. Holiday was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973. Lady Sings the Blues, a film about her life, starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972.

Diana Ross starred in the 1972 biopic of the legend, Lady Sings The Blues. The Broadway play LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL based on the singer opened in 1986, which was recently revived in 2014 starring Audra McDonald.

Daniels has produced Monster's Ball and directed Precious, which received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Director; it won two of the awards. In 2012, Daniels directed The Butler, a historical fiction drama featuring an ensemble cast portraying unique events on the 20th century presidents of the United States at the White House. Daniels is also a co-creator, executive producer, and director of the television series EMPIRE and Star, which debuted in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Andra Day's debut album, Cheers to the Fall, was released in 2015 and peaked at number 48 on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album was nominated for Best R&B Album and the album's main single, "Rise Up", was nominated for Best R&B Performance at the 2016 Grammy Awards. Day also appeared alongside Stevie Wonder, who is partially credited for her discovery, in an ad for Apple TV in late 2015. Her Cheers to the Fall Tour began in November 2016.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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