Fever | Peggy Lee biopic by Todd Haynes starring Michelle Williams

[Cremildo]

The long-in-development Peggy Lee biopic Fever, not only looks to have found a new studio to call home but a new star to play the legendary singer. Sources tell Deadline MGM is in talks to come aboard the Peggy Lee biopic Fever, with Academy Award-nominee Todd Haynes set to direct and four-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams on board to star.

The film will be produced by Marc Platt, Academy Award-winner Reese Witherspoon, and Pamela Koffler & Christine Vachon via their Killer Films production company. It is understood that multi-Grammy award winning artist Billie Eilish, her management team, mother Maggie Baird and Record Label partner Justin Lubliner have expressed interest in Fever and are in early discussions with the filmmakers to come on board as executive producers for the feature film. Eilish was part of a celebration’s life and career last May and has always seen Lee as one of her inspirations for her music.

The film had been in development at Fox 2000 since and came close to going into production with Witherspoon in the Lee role, but after Nora Ephron, who penned the original draft, passed away in 2012, the film was put on hold. Witherspoon would eventually depart the project and after Fox 2000 was shuttered, following Fox-Disney purchase, the film was shelved. In recent months, the project picked up momentum after Williams was drawn to the idea of playing Lee and a package was put together with MGM moving fast to be in pole position for the rights.

Best known for her cover of the Little Willie John song, Fever, to which she added her own additional lyrics, Lee was a product of the big band era, a singer, songwriter and composer whose career spanned nearly seven decades. Lee died in 2002 at the age of 81 but her legacy lives on as one of the first members of Capitol Records’s “old guard” to embrace the new rock’n’roll sound. She was also an accomplished actor, earning an Oscar nom for best actress in 1955 for her portrayal of a despairing, alcoholic blues singer in Pete Kelly’s Blues. [+]