Steven Spielberg and Oprah developing The Color Purple musical
Collider has brought word that Ready Player One‘s Steven Spielberg and Selma‘s Oprah Winfrey have joined legendary producer Quincy Jones and Broadway veteran Scott Sanders to produce a film version of the musical adaptation of The Color Purple for Warner Bros.
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Based on the 1982 novel by Alice Walker, the story follows Celie and other African-American women in the Southern United States in the 1930s and their struggles with racism and living in the lower social class, while Celie also struggles to find her identity after suffering abuse from various men in her life over the years.
The novel was previously adapted into a film in 1985 with Spielberg behind the camera and Winfrey making her film debut, while Whoopi Goldberg (Nobody’s Fool) also made her film debut in the lead role of Celie. The film received highly positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, earning 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Goldberg and Best Supporting Actress for Winfrey.
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The Color Purple was then turned into a Broadway musical in 2005 which ran for three years, earning 11 Tony Award nominations, followed by a revival from 2015 to 2017 that received even higher acclaim than the first run, winning two Tony Awards.
The revival featured Cynthia Erivo in the lead role of Celie, and while she has been making a splash on the big screen with this year’s neo-noire thriller Bad Times at the El Royale and the upcoming heist drama Widows, it’s still uncertain whether she will reprise the role for the big screen adaptation of the musical.