ARTICLE
The Color Purple is set to be a musical film!
By Rachelle / 16 Sep 2020 (Wednesday)
Broadway musical The Color Purple, will be coming to the big screen with Beyoncé’s Black Is King co-director, Blitz Bazawule, at the helm!
Oprah Winfrey, who starred in the 1985 film adaptation of The Color Purple, is one of the producers of the upcoming film.
The Color Purple follows the lives of African-American women — namely Celie and Nettie Harris, Shug Avery and Miss Millie — in the American South in the 1930s. It is originally a novel written in 1982 by Alice Walker before Steven Spielberg adapted it into the 1985 film of the same name which he directed and starred Winfrey, Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg.
The original Broadway musical of the story debuted in 2005 and earned 11 Tony Award nominations a year later, with actress LaChanze winning a Tony for her role as Celie. Cynthia Erivo also played the role of Celie in the 2015 revival, for which she won the Tony Award for Lead Actress in a Musical.
No casting news has been announced as of yet but Cynthia Erivo seems to be a shoo-in to reprise her role as Celie. Erivo could make movie history if she plays Celie in the film version. She won a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy for her work in the Broadway musical. If she also wins an Oscar for the role, she’d be the first person to win an EGOT from the same role.