Viola Davis To Play Harriet Tubman For HBOPosted by Wilson Morales
April 27, 2015
Source: Variety
Viola Davis is developing a film to play Harriet Tubman, the activist who helped devise a system that allowed hundreds of slaves to escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad, for HBO
The untitled movie is based on the book “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero” by Kate Clifford Larson. Davis is developing the project with Amblin TV and writer Kirk Ellis.
Tubman became an American icon as a woman who escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849 and helped organize a network of safe houses to help her relatives. She eventually helped hundreds of slaves to secure their freedom and became the most famous “conductor” on the network.
During the Civil War, Tubman served with the Union Army as a cook and a nurse, but she was eventually pressed into service as a spy.
Davis is exec producing with her partner and husband, Julius Tennon; Amblin’s Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank; Ellin; Jim Lefkowitz; and Cliff Dorfman.
While she currently stars in the ABC hit series ABC drama “How to Get Away With Murder,” Variety is reporting that Davis may start shooting next year when the series in on hiatus.
Davos has also been developing a feature film based on the life of pioneering congresswoman Barbara Jordan.
