Spike Lee to Direct Adaptation of David Byrne’s American Utopia

Spike Lee has signed on to direct a film adaptation of David Byrne’s American Utopia, Deadline reports. The feature-length version of Byrne’s hit Broadway show is slated for a 2020 release, and will be executive produced by Participant alongside Byrne, Lee, and others. The film will be produced by Byrne’s Todomundo and Lee’s Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks production companies, as well as RadicalMedia.

Deadline published the following statement from Byrne on the upcoming film:

Pinch me. This couldn’t have worked out better for this project. Spike Lee directing and Participant producing—two socially engaged teams, well, three if you count us in the band, coming together in what I feel will be something moving, important, and unlike anything anyone has seen before.

American Utopia opened October 2019 and will run until February 16 at New York’s Hudson Theatre. Byrne released an LP of the same name back in 2018.

Read “David Byrne’s American Utopia Is a Broadway-Sized Plea for Common Ground” over on the Pitch.