I just knew he was the right person for the job – Oprah Winfrey on why Blitz Bazawule was the right director for The Color Purple

Oprah Winfrey has said that Ghanaian rapper turn filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule was the right fit for the upcoming re-imagined musical take on the epic film, The Color Purple. 

Oprah made the comment during an exclusive online Q&A session with selected media personalities ahead of the official release of The Color Purple trailer last week.

Oprah explained: “I think by the time we saw Blitz, he was like the fifth or sixth director that we had spoken to. Blitz presented these storyboards, and within five minutes of Zooming with him, I was texting to Scott Sanders and everybody else on the call, this is the guy. And they were texting, this is the guy, this is the guy. Because he just came in there knowing the stuff. It’s like he lived it. He walked in there, he was all preyed up. He was like, I’m getting this thing today.”

Blitz giving his account also added: “This was like, you know, you dream of things like this and then they happen. And I remember getting a phone call from my agent saying, they’re remaking The Color Purple. And the obvious instinct is to go, oh, that can’t be me. I mean, it’s so legendary. I mean, starting with, of course, Alice Walker’s beautiful Pulitzer Prize winning book, to Steven Spielberg’s classic, to a Tony Award winning Broadway show.  I mean, the bar is so high. And then I sat with Steven and Oprah and Scott Sanders and the team and the Warner Brothers team. And it was clear that they were gonna allow us to really expand the canon of The Color Purple

So once we arrived at that point, then it became about, well, then how do you make it a musical? And I’ve been a musician for over 10 years. I’ve toured globally. I knew very quickly that music creates a level of empathy and a directness that we can lock into. And beyond that, African-American music has always set the pace for music globally. So I knew that all I had to do was lean on that and create some level of parallel between the music and the character. So we went back, we looked at gospel music as our genesis that evolved into blues, that evolved into jazz. 

And that’s kind of how we arrived here. We had brilliant cast. I mean, you know, we can go on for days from Fantasia Barrino to Taraji P. Henson, to Daniel Brooks, to, of course, Coleman Domingo, the brilliant Coleman, the amazing Corey Hawkins, of course, Halle Bailey. We’ll be introducing some really fresh new voices like Felicia Pellen-Posse. And then musically, too, we knew that we needed to reach into just the icons of music, right? So we leaned into gospel, Ricky Dillard, Tamela Mann, the amazing Tamela Mann, who opens our movie with mysterious ways. We leaned into Cab Moe, who was our bluesman, who helped us arrange and bring blues to life. Christian McBride, who helped us kind of evolve jazz into what it is. And I think when you put it all together, you have a tapestry that is beautiful, it’s joyous, and as Oprah said, it’s healing.”

Warner Bros. Pictures invites you to 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 30^th 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).

The screenplay is by Marcus Gardley (“Maid,” “The Chi”), based on the novel by Alice Walker and 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. The executive producers Alice Walker, Rebecca Walker, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Carla Gardini, Mara Jacobs, Adam Fell, Courtenay Valenti, Sheila Walcott and Michael Beugg.

Joining director Bazawule behind the camera are director of photography Dan Laustsen (“John Wick: Chapter 4,” “The Shape of Water”), production designer Paul Denham Austerberry (“The Flash,” “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”) and editor Jon Poll (“Bombshell,” “The Greatest Showman”). The choreographer is Fatima Robinson (“Coming 2 America,” “Dreamgirls”) and the costumes are designed by Francine Jamison-Tanchuck (“Emancipation,” “One Night in Miami…”). The music supervisors are Jordan Carroll (“The Greatest Showman,” “Godfather of Harlem”) and Morgan Rhodes (“Space Jam: A New Legacy,” “Selma”); the music is by Kris Bowers (“King Richard,” “Green Book”); and the executive music producers are Nick Baxter (“Babylon,” “CODA”), Stephen Bray (“Respect,” “Juanita”) and Blitz Bazawule.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Harpo Films Production, an Amblin Entertainment Production, a Scott Sanders Production/a QJP Production, “The Color Purple.” It will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and is set to open in theaters in North America on December 25, 2023 and internationally beginning 18 January 2024.