When David Hajdu's book Lush ...
Question: When David Hajdu's book Lush Life, about Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington's composing partner, was published I remember hearing talk of a biopic. Is there any word on this project?
Answer: There is, but it's not encouraging. David Hajdu's 1996 Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, which chronicled Strayhorn's complicated life as an openly gay African-American jazz musician (who penned such standards as "Take the A Train") was optioned by Universal Pictures. Director Irwin Winkler tried to develop it as a film with a Jay Cocks screenplay and with Will Smith and Denzel Washington playing Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, respectively. But the project fell apart. Winkler and Cocks went on to collaborate on the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely (2004), which features some similar elements, and Lush Life is now listed as an inactive project.