Halle Bailey, Da'Vine Joy Randolph to Star in Pharrell Williams' Coming-of-Age Movie Musical

Halle Bailey has been cast in her next big cinematic project, a movie musical starring Academy Award-winning actress Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Music mogul Pharrell Williams is set to produce the upcoming project with Michel Gondry.

Halle Bailey, Da'Vine Joy Randolph Movie Musical

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bailey will return to the big screen after her debut in The Little Mermaid and The Color Purple, both movie musicals scored significant box-office success.

Details of the upcoming project are still under wraps, but the publication revealed that it would be a coming-of-age period feature.

Gondry will direct the film, which is set in the summer of 1977 at Virginia Beach and is largely inspired by the Atlantis Apartments in William's childhood neighborhood.

Critically acclaimed playwrights Martin Hynes and Steven Levenson have been tapped to write the screenplay for the upcoming film.

Bailey scored significant recognition for her role in The Little Mermaid as Ariel, earning a Saturn Award and a People's Choice Award nomination for her breakthrough film.

She was also featured as Young Nettie in the movie musical adaptation of the Broadway show The Color Purple. For the role, she won a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture, a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph Wants to Star in a Musical

Randolph has received critical acclaim for her role as Mary Lamb in Alexander Payne's The Holdovers. She made a clean sweep on the awards circuit, bagging a Golden Globe, SAG Award, a BAFTA, and eventually, an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

In February, she revealed to Variety that her dream role was to play the life of American opera singer Leontyne Price on film.

"Be that I'm a classically trained opera singer, I really want to tell the story and the life of Leontyne Price. And I want to speak multiple languages and want to shoot it overseas and obviously be singing," she said.

Randolph attended the prestigious Interlochen Arts Camp and studied theater when she was young. She then attended Temple University to study classical vocal performance and opera, but she switched to musical theater in her junior year. (via Opera Wire)

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Halle Bailey, Pharell Williams