*A long overdue biopic about Hattie McDaniel is currently in development, Variety reports.
Producers Alysia Allen and Aaron Magnani are teaming on the project, which will tell the story of the first African American actress to win an Academy Award.
The daughter of freed slaves, McDaniel was an acclaimed vaudeville performer and one of the first black women on radio before she was cast as Mammy in “Gone with the Wind,” for which she won an Oscar for best supporting actress in 1939 — one of eight Academy Awards won by the film.
Allen has obtained the film rights to author Jill Watts’ biography, “Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood,” and will produce with Magnani, reports Variety.
Allen is also developing the feature, “Away From The Bridge” with Keesha Sharp (“Lethal Weapon”) and is the founder of the national book club, Mocha Girls Read.
Watts, a professor of history and coordinator of the film studies program at California State University, San Marcos, also wrote, “God, Harlem U.S.A.: The Father Divine Story” and “Mae West: An Icon in Black and White.”
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