Taraji P. Henson has joined Corey Hawkins and H.E.R. in The Color Purple, Warner Bros.’ film adaptation of the musical.
Blitz Bazawule, the filmmaker behind the Beyonce-fronted Black Is King, is directing the fresh take on the Broadway musical, which was an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel by Alice Walker, and on which the Oscar-nominated Steven Spielberg-directed 1985 movie was based.
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The story centers on a woman named Celie Harris and tracks her life-long struggles as an African American woman living in the South during the early 1900s.
Henson will play Shug Avery, a blues singer who has a reputation for being a “loose woman” in the town in which the story takes place.
H.E.R. is play Squeak, who, in the musical, goes from a juke-joint waitress to an aspiring singer.
Marcus Gardley penned the screenplay, adapted from Marsha Norman’s book and Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray’s score.
Oprah Winfrey, who had her feature acting debut in Spielberg’s The Color Purple and earned an Oscar nomination, is producing via her Harpo Films banner with Spielberg as part of his Amblin Entertainment company. Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones, both of whom were behind the Broadway musical, will also produce.
Walker, Rebecca Walker, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Carla Gardini, Adam Fell and Mara Jacobs executive producing.
Henson is known for playing Cookie Lyon, a drug kingpin on the Fox drama Empire. Recent features include What Men Want, Proud Mary and Hidden Figures. She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance opposite Brad Pitt in 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
