Viola Davis To Star In ‘Still I Rise’by Wilson Morales
April 27, 2011
Academy Award nominee Viola Davis (‘Doubt’) has been tapped to star in ‘Still I Rise.’
Set in Pittsburgh, Davis will play a middle-class teacher and mother of one child in a story about two strong women who channel their frustration into action and join forces to transform an inner-city school.
Daniel Barnz (‘Beastly’) will direct the original story, which is not related to the Maya Angelou work. Negotiations for the other female lead, along with supporting performers and a school, are under way, stated the Post-Gazette.
Ironically, the South Carolina native won a Tony Award for playing a Pittsburgh wife and mother in August Wilson‘s ‘Fences.’
Walden Media executive Mylan Stepanovich said this week that filming likely will start May 23 and wrap in mid-July. “Still I Rise” should be finished with principal photography by the time “The Dark Knight Rises” and, if it makes the Fox schedule, “Locke & Key,” start.
Talking about Ms. Davis, he said, “She’s fantastic. We’re very lucky” to land her as a character likely to be called Nona opposite one named Jamie.
“We’re still working on our Jamie. … We’re hoping to have somebody by the end of the week.”
Since receiving an Oscar nomination for her supporting turn opposite Meryl Street in 2008’s ‘Doubt,’ Davis has been seen opposite Tom Cruise in ‘Knight and Day,’ ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story,’ and with Julia Roberts in ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’
Davis will next be seen opposite Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and Cicely Tyson in the film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s novel, ‘The Help.’
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