Having already portrayed Mary Jackson in “Hidden Figures” and Dorothy Pitman Hughes in “The Glorias,” Janelle Monaé has been tapped to play one other pioneering girl. She is going to star as Jazz Age entertainer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker within the A24 collection “De La Resistance.” Deadline broke the information.
“At present being fought over by a number of streamers,” the present hails from creator-showrunner Jennifer Yale (“Outlander”). “The main target of the drama shall be on Baker’s position as a spy for the Allies in the course of the French resistance serving to defeat the Nazis, and on her expertise as one of many world’s most iconic, proficient, and glamorous entertainers,” the supply reviews.
Monaé will produce “De La Resistance” by way of her Wondaland shingle. Dana Gills and Angela Gibbs are among the many exec producers, and “Josephine Baker: The Flame of Resistance” creator Damien Lewis is serving as co-exec producer and researcher.
Baker was a vaudeville and refrain line performer earlier than getting her huge break at Paris cabaret Folies Bergère in 1926. “Her efficiency within the revue ‘Un Vent de Folie’ in 1927 induced a sensation within the metropolis and her costume, consisting of solely a brief skirt of synthetic bananas and a beaded necklace, turned an iconic picture and an emblem each of the Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties,” the supply describes. With 1927’s “Siren of the Tropics,” Baker turned the primary Black girl to star in a serious movement image.
However Baker wasn’t only a legendary entertainer: she was additionally a power for social justice. The trailblazer was honored by Common Charles de Gaulle for aiding the French resistance, labored with the NAACP, refused to carry out in segregated golf equipment within the U.S., and was the one girl to talk on the 1963 March on Washington.
Ruth Negga and Paula Patton beforehand signed on to star in their very own initiatives about Baker, but it surely’s unclear whether or not they’re nonetheless shifting ahead.
Monaé has obtained eight Grammy nominations for her music, Gotham and Impartial Spirit awards for her efficiency in “Moonlight,” and a SAG award for her work in “Hidden Figures.” She counts “Antebellum,” “Harriet,” and “Homecoming” amongst her on-screen initiatives. Subsequent, the “Soiled Pc” artist will seem within the highly-anticipated “Knives Out” sequel. Monaé lately printed the Afrofuturistic story assortment “The Reminiscence Librarian.”
Yale’s writing and producing credit embody “See,” “Chambers,” “Legion,” and “Underground.”
Supply: Women And Hollywood
