Director Spike Lee has signed on to shoot a movie about James Brown, the late "Godfather of Soul," Daily Variety reported on Wednesday.

The authorized project is being developed for Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures by Brian Grazer, the Oscar-winning producer of "A Beautiful Mind," the trade publication said, adding that production would likely begin in 2008.

Brown, the self-proclaimed "hardest working man in show business," died of congestive heart failure on Monday, aged 73. The energetic singer of such soul anthems as "Sex Machine" and "I Feel Good," invented funk music, inspired the dance moves of Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson, and helped pave the way for hip-hop.

In recent years, posthumous movies about soul singer Ray Charles and country outlaw Johnny Cash have scored at the box office and won
Academy Awards.

Daily Variety said Brown played an active role in the project's development, and granted access to his music rights.

Labels: James Brown, Spike Lee