The Color Purple Musical Movie Casts Grammy Award Winner Jon Batiste

gamerant.com:

Grammy Award-winning singer Jon Batiste has officially been cast in the upcoming musical adaptation of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by the famous Alice Walker,The Color Purple.

The Warner Bros. film will mark the second feature adaptation of the novel after the iconic 1985 version that was directed by Steven Spielberg. The 1985 version also starred Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Margaret Avery. The forthcoming film is based on the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical, and it will be helmed by director Blitz Bazawule, most famously known for his work in Black Is King.

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Per Rolling Stone, Batiste is reported to be playing the role of Grady, “a marijuana-loving womanizer” who also happens to be the husband of jazz and blues singer Shug Avery. The character of Grady was previously played by actor Bennet Guillory in Spielberg's adaptation. Batiste will be accompanied by quite the star-studded cast so far, including the likes of King Richard'sAunjanue Ellis, Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Corey Hawkins, David Alan Grier, Halle Bailey, as well as R&B singer H.E.R.

The reveal of Batiste being officially a part of the highly-anticipated The Color Purple seems to have arrived at the perfect time, given Batiste just took home the Grammy for Album of the Year for his studio album, We Are, which dropped earlier this month. He may be most well known for his regular appearances as a musical director and leader of the house band on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The Color Purple will actually only be Batiste's second onscreen appearance in a feature film after Red Hook Summer by director