Netflix to Adapt August Wilson's Play MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM Starring Viola Davis

Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo and Michael Potts are set to star in the Netflix film adaptation of August Wilson's play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Multiple Tony Award and DGA Award-winner George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) will direct the film. Ruben Santiago-Hudson will adapt the script based on the award-winning play by August Wilson.

Academy Award Winner Viola Davis (Widows, Fences), Chadwick Boseman (42, Get On Up, Black Panther), Emmy Award Winner Glynn Turman (Mr.Mercedes, Sextuplets, How To Get Away With Murder, In Treatment), Tony and Olivier Award Nominee Colman Domingo (If Beale Street Could Talk) and Michael Potts (Show Me A Hero, True Detective) are set to star in the film.

Academy Award Winner Denzel Washington, Academy Award Nominee Todd Black and Dany Wolf will produce the film. Filming to commence next month in Pittsburgh.

When Ma Rainey, the "Queen of the Blues," makes a record in a studio in Chicago, 1927, tensions boil between her, her white agent and producer, and bandmates.

In 2010 Denzel Washington and Viola Davis starred in the revival of August Wilson's Fences on Broadway. They both won TONY AWARDS for their roles. In 2016 Washington directed and starred alongside Viola Davis in the film adaptation of Fences which received 3 Academy Awards nominations for best film, best actor and best adapted screenplay, and an Academy Award win for Viola Davis.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opened at Broadway's Cort Theatre in October 1984, playing 276 performances before closing in June 1985. Featuring direction by Lloyd Richards, the play cast Theresa Merritt in the title role. The remainder of the company featured John Carpenter, Lou Criscuolo, Scott Davenport-Richards, Charles S. Dutton, Leonard Jackson, Robert Judd, Christopher Loomis, Aleta Mitchell, and Joe Senaca. Nominated for a Tony Award, Ma Rainey's won the 1984 New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play was revived in February 2003 starring Whoopi Goldberg and Charles S. Dutton.

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