Cynthia Erivo, fresh off a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Harriet, has signed on to star in a musical drama titled Talent Show for Universal.
Lena Waithe (Master Of None) has written the most recent draft of the script, and her collaborator on The Chi, Gandja Monteiro, will direct the film, based on an original idea by Duane Adler, who created Step Up.
Erivo will star as a failed songwriter who returns home to Chicago to lead a group of at-risk youth and help them with their annual talent show. There’s currently no start date set up for the project due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Erivo is absurdly talented, as evidenced by the fact that she already has a Tony, Grammy and Emmy under her belt for her work on the Broadway revival of The Color Purple and a musical performance on The Today Show, respectively.
She’ll probably secure another Emmy nomination next year for her work on HBO’s The Outsider too. So she’s an Oscar away from an EGOT (all four major American awards), which only fifteen people in history have accomplished.
Her big screen career is really heating up, too. Despite only making her debut in 2018’s Bad Times At The El Royale, she’s since starred in Steve McQueen‘s excellent Widows and will be seen alongside Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley in Chaos Walking, whenever that finally gets released.
She also recently wrapped the time travel movie Needle In A Timestack, plus she will star as Aretha Franklin in National Geographic’s anthology series Genius: Aretha.
She will be a perfect fit for Talent Show, which should allow her to showcase her impressive range. Plus, with Waithe writing the script and Monteiro directing, that’s a lot of talent on board, so we could see the film become the next musical hit during this mini revival the genre is having.
#Peace.Love.TalentShow
