Grammy Award-winning singer Jon Batiste has officially been cast in the upcoming musical adaptation of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by the famous Alice Walker, The Color Purple.
The Warner Bros. film will mark the second feature adaptation of the novel after the iconic 1985 version that was directed by Steven Spielberg. The 1985 version also starred Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Margaret Avery. The forthcoming film is based on the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical, and it will be helmed by director Blitz Bazawule, most famously known for his work in Black Is King.
Per Rolling Stone, Batiste is reported to be playing the role of Grady, “a marijuana-loving womanizer” who also happens to be the husband of jazz and blues singer Shug Avery. The character of Grady was previously played by actor Bennet Guillory in Spielberg's adaptation. Batiste will be accompanied by quite the star-studded cast so far, including the likes of King Richard's Aunjanue Ellis, Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Corey Hawkins, David Alan Grier, Halle Bailey, as well as R&B singer H.E.R.
The reveal of Batiste being officially a part of the highly-anticipated The Color Purple seems to have arrived at the perfect time, given Batiste just took home the Grammy for Album of the Year for his studio album, We Are, which dropped earlier this month. He may be most well known for his regular appearances as a musical director and leader of the house band on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The Color Purple will actually only be Batiste's second onscreen appearance in a feature film after Red Hook Summer by director Spike Lee.
The Color Purple is set in the rural deep South during the early 1900s and follows the main character, Celie. Celie unfortunately fell hostage and confined to the societal traps that were set up for women like herself - members of the African American community. She was never given the opportunity to have an education, therefore she had no idea how to read or write. After suffering years of physical, mental, and sexual abuse from her own father for most of her life, he ends up selling her off to another equally violent man who forsees the same vision for Celie - for her to be an impermanently, trapped, subservient housewife.
The Color Purple was a revolutionary tale because it not only provided much needed accurate representation of the explicit trauma of what African American women go through and continue to endure, but the story doesn’t allow for them to be reduced to that suffering as well. Celie goes on a journey throughout the movie of self-love and empowerment. Throughout her life, people told her she was physically ugly and stupid, she began to teach herself how to read and write. She witnessed the beauty within her that was being suffocated and hidden from her outwardly by others' own inflated ego or need for power.
The Color Purple (2023) is scheduled to hit theaters on December 20, 2023.
Source: Rolling Stone