Corey Hawkins to play Harpo in Warner Bros Feature Musical ‘The Color Purple’
Deadline is reporting that Corey Hawkins will play Harpo in Warner Bros’ feature adaptation of the Broadway musical The Color Purple, based on Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated 1995 movie.
With Ghana-born Black Is King filmmaker Blitz Bazawule is set to direct, The Color Purple has a December 21, 2023 release date.
Marcus Gardley is writing the screenplay based on the Broadway reimagining of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel. The story depicts the lives of African American families and relationships in early 20th century Georgia. The musical, featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel, blues and African rhythms, has a book by Marsha Norman with music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.
The movie’s producers are Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones. EPs are Walker, Rebecca Walker, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Carla Gardini and Mara Jacobs.
Hawkins starred as Benny in Jon M. Chu’s feature take of the Lin-Manuel Miranda Broadway award-winning musical In the Heights, and played Dr. Dre in his breakout film Straight Outta Compton. His other film credits include BlacKkKlansman, Kong: Skull Island, Iron Man 3 and the TV series The Walking Dead.
The original Broadway musical of The Color Purple debuted in 2005, scoring 11 Tony nominations and winning for LaChanze’s role as Celie. It ran for 910 performances. A revival in 2015 scored four more Tony noms and won for Best Revival of a Musical and for Cynthia Erivo in her Broadway debut. The musical has also won Grammys and Emmys.