‘Fever’: Michelle Williams And Todd Haynes Reunite For Long-Developing Peggy Lee Biopic

One of Todd Haynes’ long-shelved projects has suddenly been dusted off, and there are some interesting forces that helped make it happen. A few years ago, Haynes was set to direct Reese Witherspoon on a biopic of influential jazz singer Peggy Lee, but for reasons that we’ll get into later it never happened. But now that’s changing, with Haynes finding himself a brand new, but familiar, star.

Deadline reports Michelle Williams is set to star in Fever, Haynes’ biopic on Peggy Lee. Witherspoon remains on board as a producer, while MGM is looking to take part, which should help the project actually get moving this time. Not only that, but Grammy-winner Billie Eilish, a noted Peggy Lee superfan, is close to joining as an exec-producer.

Fever came close to happening before with Witherspoon as star and the late Nora Ephron as writer. However, when Ephron passed that put the film on ice. On top of that, the film was set up at Fox 2000, which was shut down during Fox’s acquisition by Disney.

Haynes and Williams have worked together twice before, in I’m Not There and Wonderstruck. They seem to be on much the same wavelength and it’s good to see them finally getting to do something where she’s in the lead role. Could be magic.

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.