Posted on by Randy Slovacek

Check out The New Trailer For Upcoming ‘The Color Purple’

Check out the official trailer for the upcoming film, The Color Purple, a bold new take on the beloved classic.
(image via Warner Bros)

Check out the official trailer for the upcoming film, The Color Purple, a bold new take on the beloved classic.

Based on the musical stage play, book (of the musical stage play) by Marsha Norman, music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

Via press release:

Experience the extraordinary sisterhood of three women who share one unbreakable bond in “The Color Purple.”

This bold new take on the beloved classic is directed by Blitz Bazawule (“Black Is King,” “The Burial of Kojo”) and produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones.

“The Color Purple” stars Taraji P. Henson (“What Men Want,” “Hidden Figures”), Danielle Brooks (“Peacemaker,” “Orange Is the New Black”), Colman Domingo (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Fear the Walking Dead”), Corey Hawkins (“In the Heights,” “BlacKkKlansman”), H.E.R. (“Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration”), Halle Bailey (“The Little Mermaid,” “Grown-ish”), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard,” “If Beale Street Could Talk”), and Fantasia Barrino (in her major motion picture debut).

Fantasia Barrino previously played the central role of “Celie” in the original run of The Color Purple on Broadway in 2007. Danielle Brooks played the role of “Sofia” in the 2015 Broadway revival of the musical.

Some folks shared on the Twitterverse their concerns that the lesbian relationship between “Celie” and “Shug Avery”  – which was drastically whitewashed down to a single kiss in the 1985 film starring Whoopi Goldberg – might be ignored again.

Director Steven Spielberg later admitted he was “shy” about the material and worried about a PG-13 rating.

“Perhaps I was the wrong director to acquit some of the more sexually honest encounters between Shug and Celie, because I did soften those,” Spielberg told Entertainment Weekly. “I basically took something that was extremely erotic and very intentional, and I reduced it to a simple kiss.”

I’m very excited to see this. In theaters December 25.