Lee Daniels revealed in an interview with Billboard that he is developing an autobiographical movie musical based on his life, which he’s apparently shopping around.

In a conversation that was more about his upcoming new Fox series, “Star,” which he describes as “the complete antithesis of ‘Empire’,” Daniels was asked if there is another musical scene or genre that he thinks would be right for a TV show. His reply: “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.'”

Any comparisons to Fellini’s “8 1/2” will certainly get my attention. And certainly “All That Jazz” is not slouch either. But both demonstrate the scope of Daniels’ vision for the project, should it ever become a reality as he imagines it.




But he’s in a much stronger place than he’s probably ever been from which to negotiate projects with studio financiers, given the immense success he’s had with “Empire,” and he did deliver a $100+ million movie in “The Butler,” 3 years ago. But this seemingly ambitious musical film about his life might be his toughest sell yet.

For now, he’s busy with a 3rd season of “Empire,” which continues to be a ratings behemoth for Fox, and he’s working on a new series, also for Fox, titled “Star,” a music business-set drama (like Empire,” that’s currently filming. About “Star,” he had this to say in the same interview with Billboard: “… These girls [the series’ 3 leads] will do whatever it takes. They’ll murder. They’ll f— you. They’ll rob you. [The characters] Star and Simone are very, very poor. They come from the foster-care system, and we explore the atrocities that happen there… 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.”

“Paris is Burning” documents “The Children” – mostly black and Latino, part of the New York under class and gay. Their lives focus on Harlem Drag Queen Balls, where they compete for trophies and cash prizes by “voguing,” a combination of break dancing, gymnastics, assuming attitudes and “striking the poses” of fashion magazines. The film is a tribute to these so-called “outcasts,” to their ingenuity and perseverance, and ultimately to their strength. The film earned the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for Documentary in 1991, went on to receive much acclaim, and is considered an important pioneering work, directed by Jennie Livingston. I’m curious to see how a remake of a groundbreaking “Paris Is Burning” – especially as a musical – would be received by fans of the original, and new audiences.

Below is a trailer for “Paris Is Burning.”