Coming off the heels of her Grammy win for Song of the Year and Oscar win for Best Original Song, H.E.R. is now taking her talents to the big screen. Warner Bros. is producing a feature adaptation of the award-winning Broadway musical, The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The 1982 novel is also the foundation of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated 1985 film.
The Color Purple tells the story of Celie Harris and her struggles in life and love during the racist South in the early 1900s. H.E.R. is set to star as Squeak, a juke joint waitress with dreams of being a singer. In Spielberg’s film, the role was played by Rae Dawn Chong.
The filmmaker behind Beyoncé‘s Black Is King, Blitz Bazawule, is set to direct the musical. The remake is currently in pre-production. According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources say that the team’s creative and casting decisions are based on wanting to “bring the story and its themes to a new generation of viewers.”
Sources also report that the 24-year-old musician may also perform a new original song for the forthcoming adaptation. Previously, H.E.R. had brief appearances in Netflix’s Yes Day and in the television movie, School Gyrls.
The Color Purple remake is slated for release on Dec. 20, 2023.