FKA Twigs is set to play Josephine Baker, the French-American singer and dancer who became the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, in a Studiocanal-produced biopic to be directed by Maïmouna Doucouré.
“I am honored to collaborate with the immensely talented Maïmouna Doucoure on this incredible project,” said Twigs. “Josephine Baker’s extraordinary legacy is such an inspiration to me and to so many people around the world. She lives on in our hearts as a visionary, ground-breaking woman whose story is as powerful as it is relevant today. I cannot wait to embody Josephine Baker bringing her fight, her love, her losses, her talent and her heroism to the big screen.”
An icon of the Roaring Twenties, Baker made a name for herself as one of the most beloved cabaret performers at the Folies Bergère in Paris before making history as the star of the 1927 silent film “Siren of the Tropics” as a native girl in the West Indies who falls in love with a French man.
But Baker’s true legacy would come later in her life during World War II, where she became an intelligence agent for the French Resistance and used her celebrity status to hide in plain sight and smuggling information on Nazi troop positions in occupied France to the Allied Forces. The full extent of her service for the Resistance was not known until 2020 when documents about her work during the war were declassified by the French government.
After the war, Baker would become a part of the civil rights movement in the U.S., refusing to perform in segregated clubs, losing her work visa due to her protests, and taking part in Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. She also adopted 12 children of various ethnicities, calling them her “Rainbow Tribe” to show that, in her words, “children of different ethnicities and religions could still be brothers.”
The biopic will be developed with the cooperation of the surviving members of that Rainbow Tribe, including Baker’s sons Jean-Claude and Brian Boullion Baker. Studiocanal is set to launch worldwide sales at Cannes releasing theatrically in their territories of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand.
“Josephine Baker has lived with me for years. Working on this film, I realise how modern, fearless and complex she was. Beyond the legend, I want to explore her contradictions, her wounds and her immense courage, as well as her relentless fight for dignity,” said Doucoure.
“With the extraordinary FKA Twigs bringing her rare artistry, intelligence and emotional depth to the role, it is a huge honour to work with Studiocanal to bring Josephine’s story to the screen for a global audience: the story of a woman who never stopped reinventing herself and fighting for justice and equality,” Doucoure continued.
Bien Ou Bien will produce the film alongside Studiocanal. FKA twigs is represented by UTA, Untitled, UROK and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole. Maïmouna Doucouré is represented by UBBA in France and CAA in the U.S.
