Moonlight director Barry Jenkins is set to direct the celebrated Alvin Ailey biopic for Fox Searchlight. Ailey, who passed away in 1989, was a famous African-American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the Ailey School both located in New York City.
Ailey helped popularise modern dance, and his “Revelations” piece is widely considered to be a well-known modern dance piece in history. In 2014, President Barack Obama selected Ailey to be a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Jenkins teams up with the rising screenwriter Julian Breece who will be in charge of the script. We see her work on Ava DuVernay‘s directed miniseries When They See Us on the story of the ‘Central Park Five’. According to Indiewire, Alicia Keys is one of the producers for the film. Jenkins will also be the executive producer alongside Jana Edelbaum and Susan Lewis.
Jenkins recently wrote a new script for Twelve, the movie adaptation of the documentary 12 O’Clock Boys which will be directed by Angel Manuel Soto.
He will next direct The Underground Railroad TV series for Amazon Prime, based on Colson Whitehead’s book of the same name. The series will star Joel Edgerton, Thuso Mbedu, Chase W. Dillon and Aaron Pierre.
No release date has been announced for the movie.
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