*Fresh off his five Grammy wins including Album of the Year, Jon Batiste has joined the cast of “The Color Purple” musical movie.
We reported earlier that the project’s executive producers include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Quincy Jones.
Per Deadline, “Batiste will make his big-screen acting debut as Grady, a debonair, sweet-talking piano man who is the epitome of charm and eloquence and husband of Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson). Bennet Guillory played the role in the 1985 feature,” the outlet writes.
Oscar winner Batiste has served as band leader and musical director on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” since 2015.
As reported by Variety, the forthcoming Warner Bros. movie musical is an adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical by Marsha Norman, Brenda Lee, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, which was based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker.
READ MORE: Ciara is ‘Honored’ to Join Cast of ‘The Color Purple’ Musical
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Directed by Blitz Bazawule, the upcoming film follows the classic 1985 film adaptation from director Steven Spielberg and centers on Celie, a Black Southern woman who struggles to find her identity amid decades of abuse. Whoopi Goldberg played Celie in Spielberg’s film.
Spielberg’s film was a box office success, grossing $142 million against a budget of $15 million.
Taraji P. Henson has been tapped to star as Shug Avery in Bazawule’s “The Color Purple,” and Danielle Brooks will co-star as Sofia. Corey Hawkins has been cast as Harpo, singer H.E.R. will play Squeak (originally played by Rae Dawn Chong in Spielberg’s film), Ciara will play Nettie, the younger sister of Celie, who will be portrayed by Fantasia Barrino, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Bazawule will direct the movie musical from a script penned by Marcus Gardley (“The Chi”) and based on Walker’s novel. Bazawule is best known for his work on Beyoncé’s “Black is King,” “The Burial of Kojo” and “Cherish the Day.”
The new adaptation is slated for a Dec. 25, 2023 release.
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