Amid a presentation that seemed to emphasize that Warner Bros. Discovery is more than just Batman and Harry Potter, we got the first look at “The Color Purple.” Oprah Winfrey herself came on stage, her first CinemaCon, to introduce the movie alongside director Blitz Bazawule.
Winfrey received an Oscar nomination for the previous adaptation, helmed by Steven Spielberg in 1985, in what was her first on-screen role.
Opening December 25, 2023, the film — billed as a “bold new take on a beloved classic” — is a feature adaptation of the stage musical based on Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
This new version, written by Marsha Norman with music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray, stars Fantasia, Phylicia Mpasi, Colman Domingo, Taraji P. Henson, Corey Hawkins, Danielle Brooks and Hailee Bailey. It will follow in the footsteps of “Hairspray” and some of the Walt Disney live-action remakes in being adaptations of stage musical versions of properties that were previously movies.
Set to the pulsating percussion beat of the song “Hell No,” the announcement teaser offers a quick montage of captivating and mostly context-free imagery before boldly declaring that this is “not your Mama’s Color Purple.”
There’s a certain over-the-top sensationalism at play, what Winfrey later called “fantastical realism,” intercut with more conventionally source-faithful conflicts between Fantasia, Henson and Domingo. Henson gets top billing alongside a murder’s row of talent. Even if we don’t get any real hints that it’s a musical, an odd quirk in marketing theatrical musicals going back to Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd” in 2007, it certainly positions itself as a true event film.
The teaser was followed by Oprah returning to the stage, declaring “It’s that good!” The short post-reveal Q&A featured Winfrey, the director and Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson and Fantasia.
“We didn’t know you could sing,” Winfrey stated to newcomer Fantasia.
“This is the perfect role to do,” jokingly noted Fantasia concerning the role of Celie. “It’s just one and done.”
When asked what the most powerful part of the journey was, Brooks simply stated “All of it.”
All parties discussed the song “Hell No” and its value as an anthem for the film and an aspirational tune about those who undergo trauma surviving and declaring “I’m still here.”
The film is currently slated for Christmas, which tracks since there are a slew of musicals — “Sing,” “Les Misérables,” “Pitch Perfect 3,” “Dreamgirls,” “La La Land” and “The Greatest Showman” — that have crushed it over the holiday season.
