Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg have reunited to revive “The Color Purple” right into a film musical, directed by Blitz Bazawule.
After debuting footage for distributors at CinemaCon final month, Warner Bros. has launched the primary trailer for the brand new adaptation, which is ready to premiere in North America on Dec. 25. The movie will open internationally starting Jan. 18, 2024.
The trailer options visually daring motifs because it takes audiences inside Celie’s headspace with “American Idol” winner Fantasia reprising her Broadway function, in her main movement image debut. It additionally offers an perception into the sisterhood of the ladies on the coronary heart of the story. Elevated by grandeur, the highlights are the musical clips and jaw-dropping manufacturing set towards the backdrop of Mister’s Farm.
Starring alongside Fantasia are Danielle Brooks as Sofia, who earned a Tony nomination for the function within the 2016 Broadway revival, Taraji P. Henson as Shug Avery, Colman Domingo as Mister, H.E.R. as Squeak, Halle Bailey as Young Nettie, Corey Hawkins as Harpo and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Mama.
The adaptation’s solid additionally options Louis Gossett Jr. as Ol’ Mister, David Alan Grier as Reverend Avery, Ciara as Nettie, Deon Cole as Alfonso, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as Young Celie, Tamala J. Mann as First Lady and Stephen Hill as Buster, in addition to Jon Batiste as Grady and Elizabeth Marvel as Miss Millie.
In one scene, Shug Avery reveals Celie the best way to apply lipstick. During a digital occasion launching the trailer, Winfrey revealed the road was improvised. “When she says, ‘Oh, living God.’ That was an ad-libbed line that comes out of that moment when you’re with your sister and you’re looking at her in lipstick for the first time and you’re happy for her,” she defined.
Winfrey was additionally requested about the necessity to retell “The Color Purple” story nearly 40 years later. Winfrey, who serves as a producer on the movie, alongside Spielberg, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones, replied, “As long there is a need for self-discovery, self-empowerment, as long as there is a need for victory in someone’s life, as long as there is a need for people to know what it feels like to be loved up and to be made full and hold to somebody else’s love, there will be a need for ‘The Color Purple.’”
With the movie’s Christmas day launch, Winfrey and Bazawule hope the movie’s message will convey therapeutic. Winfrey recalled a current dialog with Fantasia who mentioned, “The movie changed her because it allowed her to forgive. She said, ‘People coming to this movie will be healed because I was healed.’”
Based on a 1982 novel by Alice Walker, “The Color Purple” facilities on Celie, a Black Southern lady within the early twentieth century who’s abused by her father and husband. Three years after the e book’s publication, in 1985, Spielberg directed and produced a film adaptation starring Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Laurence Fishburne. The movie obtained 11 Academy Award nominations, together with greatest image.
In 2004, “The Color Purple” was tailored right into a Tony-nominated musical written by playwright Marsha Norman with music and lyrics by Stephen Bray, Brenda Russell and Alee Willis. The critically acclaimed manufacturing obtained 11 Tony nominations. The 2016 revival earned 4 Tony nominations and scored two wins, together with greatest musical revival and greatest actress for Cynthia Erivo’s efficiency as Celie. (Brooks was nominated the actress in a featured function prize for her efficiency as Sofia.)
Bazawule (“Black Is King”) directed the movie from a script by Marcus Gardley (“The Chi”). Author Alice Walker, Rebecca Walker, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Carla Gardini, Mara Jacobs, Adam Fell, Courtenay Valenti, Sheila Walcott and Michael Beugg are government producers.
Joining Bazawule behind the digital camera are director of images Dan Laustsen, manufacturing designer Paul Denham Austerberry and editor Jon Poll. The choreographer is Fatima Robinson (“Coming 2 America,” “Dreamgirls”) and the costumes are designed by Francine Jamison-Tanchuck (“Emancipation,” “One Night in Miami”). Music supervisors are Jordan Carroll and Morgan Rhodes; the music is by Kris Bowers; and the chief music producers are Nick Baxter, Bray and Bazawule.
Watch the trailer under.