The Color Purple will return to the big screen.
According to a Collider exclusive, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg have signed on to produce a film adaptation of the acclaimed Broadway musical. The report arrives more than three decades after the duo worked together on The Color Purple film, which was based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
The book told the story of Celie, a black Southerner who struggles to overcome the pain of extreme poverty and abuse throughout her life. Spielberg directed the coming-of-age film, with Oprah portraying the character of Sofia Johnson and Whoopi Goldberg playing Celie.
"The Color Purple was a seminal moment in my life. I read the book when it came out," Oprah told the Collider in 2014. "[...] I got the book and read it, in one day. And then, I went back, the next day, and bought every copy they had. I would hand the book out to everybody that I knew. I passed it around to everybody in the office. I became obsessed with the book. I moved to Chicago and I would literally walk around with a backpack filled with books because I didn’t have a book club, and I would just start a conversation with people and say, 'Have you read The Color Purple?' And if they hadn't, I'd say, 'Here, have a copy, right here.' I was literally obsessed with it."
Oprah would later produce The Color Purple musical, which debuted in 2005 and go on to win multiple Tony Awards.
Quincy Jones and Scott Sanders will produce the upcoming Warner Bros. film alongside Oprah and Spielberg. There are no details about casting, writers, or a director at this time.
"We're really excited to create a film that translates the heart and emotion we found in telling this generational story on stage," Sanders told The Hollywood Reporter. "This is an incredibly powerful drama that needs to be shared."
