Major moves made in movie-town as Moonlight maven McCraney mixes mediums for musical with MLK matinee idol.
Whew.
Yes, big news from Walt Disney Pictures with the announcement that the Oscar-winning writer of Moonlight, Tarell Alvin McCraney, is developing a musical for the House of Mouse, according to Deadline. The movie will star David Oyelowo and is tentatively titled Cyrano the Moor. It will mix two classic plays: William Shakespeare’s Othello and Edmund Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac.
Tarell McCraney is an experienced playwright with multiple plays under his belt, including the Brothers/Sisters trilogy and American Trade, an adaptation of Hamlet for younger audiences. He won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, which he received for adapting his play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue into eventual 2016 Best Picture winner Moonlight.
Oyelowo, who will also produce with his wife, Jessica, is best known for playing Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma, as well as multiple supporting roles in The Butler, Lincoln, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He is also an experienced stage actor, and this will not be his first turn at Shakespeare’s conflicted Moor. He earned rave reviews for his performance in that role opposite Daniel Craig as the devious Iago.
In addition to the Oyelowos, Cyrano the Moor will be produced by Yoruba Saxon (A United Kingdom, Nightingale).
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