Deadline is reporting that Netflix will be making producer Denzel Washington’s feature adaptation of August Wilson’s award-winning play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, starring Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo and Michael Potts.
Washington is producing the film. The original deal he had with HBO to produced nine of Wilson’s plays was moved over to Netflix.
The project reteams Davis and Washington on their third Wilson endeavor after starring in both the 2010 Broadway revival of Fences and the 2016 film version, which he directed and also earned three Oscar noms. Davis and Washington both won Tony Awards for their roles.
Multiple Tony and DGA award winning director George C. Wolfe will helm Ma Rainey with Ruben Santiago-Hudson adapting Wilson’s play for Netflix. Production starts next month in Pittsburgh.
Todd Black and Dany Wolf are producing alongside Washington. Constanza Romero will serve as EP. Oscar winning Ann Roth is set as the costume designer with Branford Marsalis composing.
Ma Rainey follows the “Queen of the Blues,” as she makes a record in a studio in Chicago, 1927, tensions boil between her, her white agent and producer, and bandmates.
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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