Steven Spielberg Says He Dropped a Proposed Film About Ira and George Gershwin That Would Have Starred Colman Domingo

Steven Spielberg said he scrapped a planned movie about Ira and George Gershwin that, he said, would have starred Colman Domingo, before the director and actor later teamed on the alien-thriller Disclosure Day. Speaking about the earlier effort, Spielberg said, “I decided not to continue making it,” adding that he had been preparing a film centered on the famed Broadway composer and lyricist duo.

In remarks reported by Deadline, Spielberg described the earlier concept as a movie about “Ira and George Gershwin.” He tied the discussion to a period well before his collaboration with Domingo on Disclosure Day, underscoring that the Gershwin proposal never advanced to production.

The story, as described by Deadline, places the nearly made Gershwin film in a broader timeline of the Spielberg-Domingo working relationship. Deadline reports that Domingo is a two-time Academy Award nominee and that Spielberg is a three-time Oscar winner, credentials that have made their eventual collaboration on Disclosure Day notable, even as the Gershwin project did not move forward.

Deadline’s report identifies Disclosure Day as the later project that brought Spielberg and Domingo together. The publication also notes that the conversation about the shelved Gershwin film came before or alongside material surrounding Disclosure Day, indicating that the Gershwin effort was not the same project and had a separate development path.

The proposed Gershwin film would have focused on the professional partnership of Ira Gershwin and George Gershwin, creators associated with American popular music and Broadway. Spielberg’s comments, as reported, do not specify additional casting beyond Domingo, nor do they describe a release date or a finished script stage, and Deadline characterizes it as something Spielberg ultimately chose not to continue making.

For now, no alternative studio, production start, or replacement project stemming from the Gershwin concept has been publicly identified in the report. The next step for the earlier concept, based on Spielberg’s statement, is simply that it remains in the category of canceled development rather than moving forward to filming.