Zachary Quinto To Star In George Gershwin Biopic... Could This Be Spielberg's Next Film?

Back in October, it was reported that DreamWorks acquired a screenplay by Memoirs of a Geisha scribe Doug Wright about the life of iconic composer George Gershwin. At the time we assumed that Steven Spielberg would merely be executive producing the project, but now that the announced Harvey remake is off the calendar, speculation has begun that he might helm the Gershwin biopic as his next project, which could begin shooting as early as April 2010.

According to Nikki Finke, Zachary Quinto (Heroes, Star Trek) has been hired to play the famous composer, and has even been supplied with "accent and dialogue coaches" to help him prepare for the role. While Spielberg in the director's chair seems more like a connection of the dots, Quinto appears to be more of a sure thing.Quinto also seems like a good fit for the role. This shouldn't effect Paramount's hopes to release the yet-to-be-titled Star Trek sequel on the tentatively announced release date of June 29th 2012, as they would need to begin production by May of 2011 (which is a long ways off).

George, who wrote most of his works, including more than a dozen Broadway shows, in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin, died at the age of 38, diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor known as glioblastoma multiforme. The Guardian declared that he was the wealthiest composer of all time. You can find a compete listing of compositions by George Gershwin on wikipedia.