Director Antoine Fuqua will develop a film of the timeless play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The Tennessee Williams classic centers around a wealthy family in a Mississippi plantation and explores greed, death, sexual desire and repression. The play won a Pulitzer Prize when it premiered and has been revived four times on Broadway, most recently in 2008, featuring an all-Black cast that comprised of Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, and James Earl Jones.
Now Variety reports that Fuqua will produce and direct Cat on a Hot Tin Roof based on the 2008 revival, which also received acclaim when it transferred to the West End in London. The play has been previously adapted into a movie back in 1958 with Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. Fuqua is an established film director who directed hits like Training Day, The Equalizer, and The Magnificent Seven. The movie will also bring back Stephen C. Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey, who produced the recent Broadway production, and will have new storylines that will tie together with elements of the play. Fuqua had this to say about the announcement:
Bringing such a historic production to the screen is an honor I am thrilled to have alongside Stephen and Alia. They have shown their commitment to the project with two successful stagings on Broadway and the West End and know what it takes to translate this iconic drama from theatre to cinema.
The announcement of the movie continues the trend of more plays being adapted for the screen with some of the most recent being August Wilson's Fences, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Kemp Powers' One Night in Miami, and Florian Zeller's The Father, all of which have been nominated for Academy Awards. The adaptations have also continued to reflect the modern era with diverse casting, and while no cast has yet been announced, fans can look forward to another film adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Source: Variety