Spike Lee Dreamed Of Making A Jackie Robinson Movie With Denzel Washington

Spike Lee once dreamed of making a movie about Jackie Robinson, and he’s not yet ready to let that dream die.

The “BlacKkKlansman” director decided to unveil his dream project via an Instagram video on Sunday, where he shared the script for a movie that “never got made.”

“Don’t worry about it if you don’t like baseball or sports,” Lee assured audiences in his post. “This is a great American story.”

The 63-year-old director said he “dug deep” into a vault to pull out what he confirmed was the “fifth draft” of a script from 1996 for a movie called “Jackie Robinson,” as noted by Entertainment Weekly.

Denzel Washington would have been his ideal actor for the lead role, but he said Washington told him at the time that he was too old to play Robinson.

“One of my epic dream projects,” Lee called the script in his post.

All 155 pages can be read through the link in Lee’s bio on his Instagram profile. The script is based on Robinson’s 1972 autobiography that he told to Alfred Duckett, “I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson.”

“It never got made but I want to share the script with you,” Lee said.

During a time of social distancing in one of the United States’ most infected COVID-19 cities, New York City, the “Do the Right Thing” director appeared to be in a certain state of nostalgia and reflection in his video.

“I’ve had a lot of time — we’ve all had a lot of time to think about stuff,” he said. “About life. What happened, what didn't happen. And I began to think about one of my dream projects."

Lee ended his video by encouraging fans to check out his script, which he said he hopes people will like. He also made sure to give a shoutout to COVID-19 concerns — reminding everyone to stay home.

“I hope you are safe at home,” Lee said.