Spike Lee Unveils Never Made Jackie Robinson Movie Script

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Spike Lee gifted his followers and film fans a special treat. The Oscar winner unveiled a script that he calls “a great American story,” for his unmade movie about Jackie Robinson. 

Describing it as his “dream project” on his Instagram on Sunday (March 30), Lee shared the history surrounding his script from his sofa, with a life sized framed poster of the Alfred E. Green-directed The Jackie Robinson Story from 1950, starring Robinson himself, as his backdrop. 

Holding the fifth draft of the 1996 screenplay, Lee announced that he wanted to cast Denzel Washington as the lead, but the actor believed he was too old to play Robinson at the time. 

“I pulled this script out of a vault,” the Do the Right Thing director says. “Don’t worry about if you don’t like baseball or sports, this is a great American story.”

“Hope you enjoy it,” he says concluding the video. “If you don’t, that’s alright too. It’s never getting made, but I wanted to share this script with you. Be safe! Be safe! Social distancing! Peace.” 

In 2013, Chadwick Boseman starred in a feature film about Robinson called 42, but it was written and directed by Brian Helgeland.  

You can read all 159 pages of the script here.