Hot on the heels of Black Panther, a huge movie has just been announced starring Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o.
They will star in The Woman King, which is “the powerful true story of an extraordinary mother-daughter relationship.” TriStar has just acquired the worldwide rights.
“There’s no-one more extraordinary than Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o to bring them to life,” said Hannah Minghella, president of TriStar Pictures, in a statement.
The film is inspired by true events in the Kingdom of Dahomey, a powerful state in the 18th century. It will tell the story of Nanisca (Davis), general of the all-female military unit known as the Amazons, and her daughter Nawi (Nyong’o), who together fought the French and neighboring tribes who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.
The story is an original from Maria Bello and Cathy Schulman’s Welle Entertainment. Davis and her husband Julius Tennon, under their JuVee Productions will produce.
“The Woman King has the potential to be a game changer for women of color everywhere. Viola and our team at JuVee are beyond excited to partner with Sony/TriStar to bring these fierce women to the big screen,” said Tennon.
“Black Panther just showed us how the power of imagination and lore could reveal a world without gender and racial stereotypes. The Woman King will tell one of history’s greatest forgotten stories from the real world in which we live, where an army of African warrior women staved off slavery, colonialism and inter-tribal warfare to unify a nation,” said Schulman.
