Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey are working together on a new feature film version of The Color Purple. This time it must be a musical.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Warner Bros. a music film is in the pipeline, with Winfrey and Spielberg among the producers. A director or cast for the production has not yet been announced.
Steven Spielberg directed in 1985 a version of The Color Purple, to the eponymous book by Alice Walker. That drama, about the harsh living conditions of a black woman (Whoopi Goldberg) in the early 1900s, was nominated for eleven Oscars. Oprah Winfrey had a supporting role and also received a nomination.
Twenty years later Walker’s book became the inspiration for a musical on Broadway, which in 2006 was good for eleven Tony nominations. The piece later received a reprise and is currently also shown in the Netherlands. Mean while the musical has raised more than 350 million dollars (307 million euros).