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| Credit: AP Photo |
This could be good. Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer have signed on to star in Get On Up, a forthcoming biopic of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Of course, both ladies have acted alongside each other once before in The Help, and Get On Up is being directed by 'Help' director Tate Taylor.
Get On Up, which will also feature '42' star Chadwick Boseman, will depict Brown's rise from relative unknown to R&B superstar. Davis is set to play Brown's mother Susie Brown, who sent the singer to live with relatives after giving birth to him at 16, while Spencer will play Brown's Aunt Honey, who had a big influence on the icon's early life. The film was written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth ("Fair Game," "The Last Legion") and is being produced by Imagine's Brian Grazer and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. Production on the project is scheduled to begin in Mississippi in November.
I know some folks had issues with The Help (the struggles of black folks, black women in particularly, filtered through the perspective of an upper middle class white girl, her personal experience/success being the focal point at the expense of the women whose lives she was profiting from, etc.) but Get On Up is obviously going to be a totally different movie (although both films do take place around the same era).
What do you think?
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