Steven Spielberg Is Remaking 'The Color Purple' As A Musical

The Color Purple,” the 1985 Steven Spielberg drama that earned 11 Academy Award nominations and ushered in the filmmaker’s “serious dramatic director” phase, is getting a remade. Spielberg, Oprah WinfreyQuincy Jones, and Scott Sanders are set to produce the Warner Brothers film, but this time, adapting the Tony Award-winning stage musical for the screen.

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The story follows the journey of Celie, an African-American woman in the deep South from the early to mid-20th century. Celie struggles to find her identity after suffering abuse from her stepfather, husband, and others throughout four decades.

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Spielberg’s version in ’85 was an adaptation of Alice Walker‘s 1982 novel, which won a Pulitzer Prize. The book was then turned into a Broadway production which ran from 2005 to 2008, earning 11 Tony Award nominations in 2006. A revival, then, opened in late 2015 and ran through early 2017, winning two Tony Awards in 2016.

The original film starred Whoopi GoldbergMargaret Avery, and a young Oprah Winfrey, earning all three women Academy Award nominations, as well as a Best Picture nomination. Jones also picked up nominations for the films original score and the song “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister).” Goldberg even won a Golden Globe for her powerful lead performance.

“We’re really excited to create a film that translates the heart and emotion we found in telling this generational story on stage,” Sanders stated, “This is an incredibly powerful drama that needs to be shared.”

The project is in early development, and there haven’t been any casting decisions made yet. “The Color Purple” would technically be the first “remake” of a Spielberg film, though this project really sounds like a reimagining and adaptation of the aforementioned musical. Over the years, Spielberg has been somewhat publicly and vocally dissatisfied with his version of “The Color Purple.” In the recent 2017 HBO documentary “Spielberg,” the director strikes a bit of a regretful tone suggesting he was, in some measure, not emotionally mature enough to take on such a work that early in his career. While it was critically derided for being too sentimental and mawkish in many circles, apparently, the Academy voting branch disagreed, though ‘Color Purple’ would go home completely emptyhanded during the 58th Academy Awards ceremony.