One week after his film, Lee Daniels’ The Butler successfully claimed the top spot, many in the industry are wondering what’s next for Lee Daniels; we think we have a clue!
The Oscar and Black Reel Award winning producer has been attached to a number of high-profile projects since the release of Precious. Apparently, Daniels has settled on his next projects, a biopic on rocker Janis Joplin, titled Get It While You Can.
Daniels has already secured his leading lady, Oscar winner Amy Adams. According to an interview with THR, Daniels stated, “This is my next project for sure,” adding, after, after being riveted by old videos of Joplin, “I had no idea Janis Joplin was so smart — intellectual, even. Look, some of the smartest people in the world have been drug addicts.”
That’s the first time we’ve heard that!
Daniels even drops another nugget, saying: “Guess what? She [Amy Adams] can sing her ass off!”
Clearly on a roll, Daniels intends to keep the momentum going. “After Joplin, I’m hoping to get Miss Saigon off the ground. And then — I want to make a horror movie!”
(We guess he’s not counting Shadowboxer or The Paperboy!)
We’re also guessing that Daniels won’t need to secure 41 producers to raise money for the Joplin biopic like he did for The Butler. While her time was brief, Joplin’s story is still compelling.
Joplin’s rather short life (she died at age 27) was a hard one as she rode the 60s counterculture wave using drugs and alcohol that would eventually kill her at such a young age. Daniels has suggested that he’s attracted to these kinds of stories, so I suppose it’s right up his alley; And given Joplin’s worldwide popularity and influence over the years, it should be something of a prestige picture.
At the height of her career, she was known as “The Queen of Rock and Roll” as well as “The Queen of Psychedelic Soul.”
After opening with $25 million, Lee Daniels’ The Butler is projected to earn upwards of $18 million in its second week of release.