Frederick Douglass Now will be produced by Buffalo 8, with music by jazz great Branford Marsalis and Smith’s longtime collaborator, Marc Anthony Thompson, who composed the music for “Rodney King” and “A Huey P. Newton Story.”
The finale once again features Smith’s own writing, and he sings: “If there is no progress, Frederick Douglass is still alive.”
This will be the third of Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man stage shows that Lee has adapted, after helming Rodney King and A Huey P. Newton Story.
According to Variety, prolific director Spike Lee (BLacKkKlansman, Inside Man, Malcom X) has signed on to adapt the one-man stage play Frederick Douglass Now for the big screen.