The feature film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical revival of The Color Purple has found its director in Black Is King’s Blitz Bazawule.
He’ll join Marcus Gardley, who’s writing the screenplay based on Alice Walker’s 1982 novel of the same name.
The Color Purple, as we all know, depicts the lives of Black families and their relationships in early twentieth-century Georgia. The 2015 revival, which starred Cynthia Erivo, Danielle Brooks and Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson, won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and played 450 performances through January 2017.
After already making a name for himself co-directing alongside Queen Bey, Bazawule will now work alongside film and TV juggernauts Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Scott Sanders and Steven Spielberg, who are producing the project.
The producers were impressed by the “vibrant visual style” of Bazawule’s 2018 Netflix feature The Burial Of Kojo. “We were all blown away by Blitz’s unique vision as a director and look forward to seeing how he brings the next evolution of this beloved story to life,” Winfrey told Deadline.
The Ghanaian native’s credits also include studio albums such as Stereotype, Native Sun, Afropolitan Dreams and Diasporadical.
No word has been made yet on the film’s casting or a production timeline for the upcoming film, but if its anything like shows past, it will be star-studded.