Oprah Winfrey To Exec Produce, Star In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” For HBOPosted by Wilson Morales
May 2, 2016
Source: Variety
HBO Films has announced that Oprah Winfrey will star in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” which is based on Rebecca Skloot’s best-seller.
George C. Wolfe will write the screenplay and direct the film. HBO picked up the rights to the film back in 2010.
Winfrey will also serve as an exec producer on the film, along with Alan Ball, Peter Macdissi, Carla Gardini and Lydia Dean Pilcher. Skloot will serve as a co-exec producer.
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” tells the true story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks, played by Winfrey, the film chronicles her search to learn about the mother she never knew and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks’ cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever.
Henrietta Lacks’ sons Zakariyya Rahman and David Lacks, Jr. and granddaughter Jeri Lacksare will serve as consultants on the HBO project.
The Root interviewed Skloot about the book in 2010. Said Skloot, “I first learned about Henrietta when I was 16. My biology teacher mentioned “HeLa” cells, saying they were one of the most important tools in medicine, then almost as an aside, she said, “They came from a woman named Henrietta Lacks, and she was black.” That was the moment I became obsessed with Henrietta. I asked whether her family knew about the cells and what her race had to do with them being alive, but my teacher said no one knew anything else about her.”
Winfrey’s Harpo Films, Ball’s Your Face Goes Here Entertainment and Pilcher’s Cine Mosaic will produce.
Since leaving her daytime talk show, Winfrey has acted in Lee Daniel’s The Butler, Ava DuVernay’s Selma, and will appear in a supporting role to the series, Greenleaf, airing on her network, OWN.
Filming begins this summer, and no premiere date has been announced.
