On this morning’s Crew Call, we talk with The Color Purple producers Oprah Winfrey and Scott Sanders on blazing a path for their Broadway musical to the big screen.
28.12.2023 - 21:57 / variety.com
Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Nestled amid a tale of hardship and torment, “Keep It Movin'” is a bright spot in the newly released adaptation of “The Color Purple.” Just as sisters Nettie and Celie (Halle Bailey and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) are about to be torn from one another, they find a brief moment of respite and optimism as they sing to one another on the beach. “Nothing’s gonna take you down, oh / Just let it go / Life can never break your soul,” sings Nettie, instilling a feeling of hope that flickers and wanes in Celie as the film endures.
As one of the few original songs included in director Blitz Bazawule’s revival of “The Color Purple,” “Keep It Movin'” has already emerged as a focal point for the movie, which earned the second-biggest Christmas Day opening in history following its release on Dec. 25. Beyond its buoyant charms, it’s resonated beyond the screen with various award nominations and, most recently, a prestigious inclusion on the Oscars’ best original song shortlist.
“[We’re] super elated—actually kind of surprised as well,” reacts Denisia “Blu June” Andrews, one-half of songwriting-production duo Nova Wav alongside Brittany “Chi” Coney. Together, the pair collaborated with Bailey and Morten “Rissi” Jensen to pen the swinging number. “The list is compiled with a lot of great songs, so just really excited to be even considered.
But also I feel like it’s a great song, so I feel like we deserve to be there, and hopefully we can advance to the nominations.” Accolades are nothing new for Nova Wav, which formed in Atlanta back in 2011. In the time since, Andrews and Coney have become dependable titans behind the scenes, working with Nicki Minaj, DJ Khaled and Ariana Grande. To the Beyhive, they’re
.On this morning’s Crew Call, we talk with The Color Purple producers Oprah Winfrey and Scott Sanders on blazing a path for their Broadway musical to the big screen.
After spending 30-plus years honing his craft for stage and screen, Colman Domingo is more than ready for his close-up. Considering the actor’s versatile resume, which includes memorable performances in Selma, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fear the Walking Dead, or his Emmy-winning role on Euphoria and a handful of Tony nominations, it’s bewildering that his recent portrayal of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, in Netflix’s Rustin, marks his first leading role and Golden Globe nomination. Also, this year, Domingo features in another highly acclaimed film, The Color Purple, where he plays the dastardly Mister.
The sisterhood between Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks began on Broadway. That is, the sisterhood of the order of The Color Purple. Both women starred on stage in the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer-prize winning novel. Barrino spent 10 months in 2007 playing Celie, the poor country girl who survives an abusive step-father and husband and realizes her worth.
Director Steven Spielberg’s 1985 version of Alice Walker’s classic, “The Color Purple,” has always been heavily debated. Many knock it for being too tidy and toning down the lesbian love story at its heart. Others, though, consider it a classic and a film that has withstood the test of time a lot better than the movie it lost the Best Picture Oscar to, “Out of Africa.”
Oprah Winfrey has already denied that she had a feud with Taraji P. Henson while working on The Color Purple and now we’re learning more about what happened on set.
during a live Q&A session on Friday with the film’s cast. According to the actress, they also were not given any food. “You corrected it for us,” Brooks told Winfrey, 69, who said she heard about the situation from Henson, 53.
Taraji P. Henson is opening up about her time filming The Color Purple and is criticizing that production had the cast drive themselves to the set.
Hello and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast. I am Valerie Complex, an associate editor and film writer at Deadline.
Danielle Brooks and Taraji P. Henson pose together on the red carpet at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards.
Nick Clement The way an actor approaches and prepares for a role can be different with each project, and in some instances, the material presents specific obstacles that make the experience even more personally fulfilling or transcendent. This is true for actors of any age but is especially notable for a trio of younger talent in this awards season. One of the year’s best performances arrived in last summer’s coming-of-age dramedy, “Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret,” from the now-15-year-old Abby Ryder Fortson.
Carrie Bernans was left critically injured after a hit-and-run in New York City.
Actress and stuntwoman Carrie Bernans was critically injured during an alleged hit and run in New York City at 1:30 AM Monday.
The Color Purple” in 2007 because of trauma from a sexual assault that resurfaced when she took on the role.“That was around the time that my life was so crazy, so it was almost like carrying my cross and Celie’s cross. I didn’t know how to come out of the character,” Barrino, 39, told People.Nevertheless, Barrino reprised her role as Celie — who was also a victim of sexual assault — in “The Color Purple” film, which was released last week.The songstress revealed that she almost didn’t accept the part when director Blitz Bazawule asked her to star in the film.
Fantasia Barrino is sharing how she really felt about playing the lead role of Celie in The Color Purple on Broadway.
The movie The Color Purple is currently in theaters and winning over audiences around the country!
Angelique Jackson SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “The Color Purple,” now playing in theaters. As “The Color Purple” director Blitz Bazawule and his star-studded cast made their press rounds ahead of the musical movie’s Christmas Day release, they paid a special trip to visit “The View” and Whoopi Goldberg, who starred in the 1985 movie adaptation of Alice Walker’s classic novel. It’d been nearly 40 years since Goldberg played Celie, an abused and uneducated Southern Black woman whose journey to liberation is at the center of Walker’s tale. Bazawule and stars Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks and Taraji P.
Oprah Winfrey was part of the original 1985 film cast of The Color Purple, but decided not to make a cameo in the 2023 version in theaters now. If you don’t know, Oprah portrayed the role of Sofia in 1985 and was Oscar nominated for her role. She acted as a producer this go around.
Usher and H.E.R. stripped down to just their underwear for the new music video set to their song “Risk It All“!
Oprah Winfrey, was even the Queen of Talk.And the very same year, Stephen Bray — executive music producer of the new “Color Purple” movie musical that opens on Christmas Day — scored his first hits with the future Queen of Pop, Madonna, as co-writer of both “Into the Groove” and “Angel.”But Bray and Madonna shared a different kind of rhythmic history even before that — when they were both living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.“I used to play percussion in some of the dance classes that she was in,” Bray told The Post. “And then she moved to New York and was playing drums for [the band] Breakfast Club in ’79.
The movie musical The Color Purple is now in theaters and you’ll be running to listen to “I’m Here” over and over after you see the film!