Bryan Singer is going from mutants and giants to the life of one of the great choreographer-directors of the 20th Century, Bob Fosse.
Singer (X-Men, Jack the Giant Killer) is slated to direct the project, which is to be a feature-length film designed for the premium cable network. Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, the duo behind movies such as Hairspray and Chicago, is exec producing with Singer. Nicole Fosse, daughter of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, will serve as Executive Co-Producer.
The project, now untitled and in early development, will be a co-production with Sony Television.
An actor, dancer, choreographer and stage and screen director, Fosse presented a version of his life in his autobiographical 1979 feature All That Jazz. That Oscar-winning film starred Roy Scheider as a hard-living choreographer/director determined to push the envelope.
After several early film appearances in such movies as Kiss Me Kate, Fosse moved to Broadway, where he choreographed such shows as The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. On Yankees, he met his future wife, dancer Gwen Verdon.
Fosse created his own, immediately recognized jazz dance style, full of bowler hats, jazz hands, angular hip thrusts and shrugging shoulders.
On Broadway, he went on to direct and choreograph such shows as Redhead, Sweet Charity, Pippin and Chicago.
He made his film debut as a director with the 1969 movie version of Sweet Charity, starring Shirley MacLaine. His second feature, Cabaret, won eight Oscars, including best director and best picture. In addition to All That Jazz, his other feature credits include Lenny, which starred Dustin Hoffman as comedian Lenny Bruce, and Star 80, in which Mariel Hemingway played murdered Playboy centerfold Dorothy Stratten.
All this week the Fosse Master Class Series is taking on learning The Frug from Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity at Manhattan Movement and Art….Today the morning session was graced with Fosse veterans Carolyn Kirsch and Penny Worth sitting in on the class. Just next door Donna McKecknie, Baayork Lee, and Margo Sappington were filming their signature number from Promises Promises…Turkey Lurky Time. All three ladies stopped by class for a quick run through of what Lloyd Culbreath and Valarie Pettiford had taught the “Fosse Kids” so far. Just another day of Broadway legends…..OMG!!!!!
