Deadlineis reporting that a film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning playClybourne Parkhas just signed an absolutely star-studded cast withSarah Paulson,Anthony Mackie,Martin Freeman, andUzo Adubaamong the names announced.
Clybourne Parkis a play byBruce Norriswhich won him a Tony, Olivier, and Pulitzer. The play follows the residents of a Chicago suburb, once in 1959 and again in 2009. The 1959 set section of the story, focuses on a couple who plan to sell their house in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park to a black family, with their white neighbors trying to talk the couple out of it. The 2009 set section of the story centers around the same house being for sale again, but now Clybourne Park is a black neighborhood that is beginning to gentrify. The play is a spin-off ofLorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun”, which was adapted into a 1961 film of the same name starringSidney Poitier, with the main characters from that play being the black family attempting to move into Clybourne Park in 1959.
Paulson is an Emmy-winning actress who is known for her work in films like12 Years a SlaveandThe Postand series likeAmerican Horror Story. Mackie is a critically acclaimed actor known for his roles in the filmsHurt Lockerand8 Mile, and he recently became the new Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Freeman has three BAFTAs and had iconic roles inThe Hobbittrilogy and the BBC’sSherlock. Freeman also appeared in the play’s original UK cast at the Royal Court Theatre. Aduba is the three-time Emmy-winning star, best known for playing Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren for the entire run ofOrange is the New Black. They will be joined in the film byLove, Simon’sNick Robinson,andSound of Metal’sHillary Baack.
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The film will be directed byPam MacKinnon, who is making her feature directorial debut. MacKinnon won a Tony for directing the 2012 revival of the play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”. She also was nominated for a Tony for directing the play in 2012.
Clybourne Parkwill be produced bySimon FriendandKevin Loader. Both producers have a history of producing stage-to-screen adaptations. Friend produced the recent Academy Award winnerThe Fatherand Loader has produced such adaptations asTheLady in the VanandThe History Boys.
About the original play and the story it tells, Friend said:
“It’s a most simple act that triggers a combustible furor of race, family and community. The kernel of this explosive cocktail – and one that makes this storytelling so poignant – is something familiar to us: a kind family struggling to overcome a tragedy, who are moving out to find new hope.”
Loader added to that with:
“It’s 1959, and the seeds of conflict are sown when a couple in an all-white suburb are selling to a Black family. And the conflict continues within the suburb’s newest generation, 50 years later, at the peak of the Obama administration in 2009, where everything is supposedly different, but nothing has changed.”
MacKinnon closed out the statements by saying:
“Ten years after Broadway and the Pulitzer Prize,Clybourne Parkis even more relevant as an investigation of white liberal fragility and hopes deferred. I am thrilled by the thought of this stellar acting company, storming this house and neighbourhood, building two worlds: a laugh-out-loud comedy of bad manners set in 2009 and heartrending family tragedy of 1959.”
Clybourne Parkis expected to begin shooting in the fall in both the UK and the U.S.
