Netflix is looking to put yet another high-profile project into production with a feature film adaptation of the popular stage play “The Piano Lesson” with director Malcolm Washington set to helm, the streamer announced today. The pic is based on the August Wilson (“Fences”) play of the same name with a script penned by Virgil Williams and Washington. They’ve also assembled quite a group of actors for the upcoming drama set in Pittsburgh.
READ MORE: First Look: Colman Domingo As Bayard Rustin In ‘Rustin’
The impressive cast assembled for the drama includes Honorary Oscar Winner Samuel L. Jackson (“Pulp Fiction”), John David Washington (“BlacKKKlansman”), Ray Fisher (“Rebel Moon”), Danielle Deadwyler (“Till,” “The Harder They Fall”), Michael Potts (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), and Corey Hawkins (“Straight Outta Compton”).
Below is the project’s official logline provided to us by Netflix:
“Set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression, The Piano Lesson follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, which is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor.”
Jackson and Washington also starred in the Broadway revival of “The Piano Lesson,” which recently concluded its run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The stage production is said to be the highest-grossing revival of a play on Broadway and the highest-grossing Wilson production on Broadway ever.
Wilson’s “Fences” was previously turned into a film by Denzel Washington (Malcolm and John David’s father) as he directed and co-starred alongside Viola Davis; the latter earned a Best Supporting Actress statue for her performance at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2017. Another drama coming from Netflix later this year is the civil rights film “Rustin,” which should be another big critic draw as it comes from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (another Wilson adaptation), director George C. Wolfe and that film also previously earned awards with two Oscars for hairstyling and makeup.
