Billy Porter to Star in James Baldwin Biopic
Variety reports that Billy Porter is preparing to portray the author and civil rights activist James Baldwin in an upcoming biopic.
He will also co-write the untitled movie with Dan McCabe, which will be adapted from the 1994 book “James Baldwin: A Biography” by David Leeming. An emeritus professor of English at the University of Connecticut, Leeming was well versed in Baldwin as his friend of 25 years as well as his assistant.
Porter says it has been a career-long dream to tell the story of Baldwin on film. Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin was a Black gay writer whose influential works include “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” “Notes of a Native Son” and “If Beale Street Could Talk.” In addition to writing, Baldwin fought for racial justice in the U.S. civil rights movement. In Leeming’s book, he’s described as a “complex, troubled, driven, and brilliant man” who has a “gift for compassion and love.”
Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group Motion Pictures will executive produce the film with Carolyn Folks, Jennifer Lucas, Matthew Signer, and Chris Charalambous. Billy Porter and D.J. Gugenheim of Incognegro Productions will serve as producers.
Porter, who won a Best Actor Emmy Award for “Pose” and a Best Actor Tony Award for “Kinky Boots,” alsp won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Kinky Boots.
He recently appeared alongside Camila Cabello in director Kay Cannon’s “Cinderella” remake. Porter made his directorial debut with the high school coming-of-age film “Anything’s Possible” written by Alvaro García Lecuona. And he’s already lined up his next directing gig, helming queer teen comedy “To Be Real” from Gabrielle Union’s I’ll Have Another Productions.