Ciara is the latest music icon to join the cast of the musical remake of the Warner Bros. of “The Color Purple,” a person with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Ciara will portray the adult version of Nettie, who already has Halle Bailey (“The Little Mermaid”) portraying the younger version of the character. She joins a cast that already includes Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, Louis Gosset Jr. HER, David Alan Grier and Fantasia Barrino.

Blitz Bazawule is directing “The Color Purple,” currently slated for release by Warner Bros. on December 20, 2023. Production is expected to begin this month in Georgia.

Bazawule is best known as director of Beyoncé’s “Black Is King,” and he will direct from a script by Marcus Gardley (“The Chi”). “The Color Purple” also has a book by Marsha Norman and music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, and the musical was a hit for its cheerful score featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel, blues and beats. Africans.

“The Color Purple” originated from Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which was later adapted into Steven Spielberg’s Best Picture nominated film from 1985, and then into a comedy again. Broadway musical beginning in 2005. Spielberg’s film was nominated for 11 Oscars and was Whoopi Goldberg’s feature debut, and also featured Oprah Winfrey in a breakout role. The 2005 musical also garnered 11 Tony nominations and was revived in 2016, which netted two Tonys and grossed $350 million.

The story centers on a black woman named Celie, who grows up in extreme poverty in the southern United States and experiences harsh treatment from her stepfather, husband, and others in her life. , which tests his faith in God and humanity.

“The Color Purple” is produced by Spielberg, Winfrey, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones, and it is produced by Alice Walker, Rebecca Walker, Mara Jacobs, Carla Gardini, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Adam Fell.

Ciara has released seven albums and is known for songs such as “Goodies” and “Level Up.” As an actress, however, she most recently starred in 2012’s “That’s My Boy” with Adam Sandler, and she also starred in 2004’s MTV’s “All You’ve Got” and the musical “Mama , I Want to Sing”.

Entertainment Weekly broke the news for the first time.