Good news ladies and gentlemen. One of our absolute favorites, Ms. Viola Davis has not only gotten more work as a Black woman in Hollywood, she’s going to be taking on the role of one of our beloved heroines, Harriet Tubman.
According to Deadline, the Oscar nominee is set to play the former slave turned revolutionary for an HBO biopic. The script will be based off the biography Bound For The Promised Land, written by historian Kate Clifford Larson. The book tells the story many of us know quite well, how Tubman escaped through the Underground Railroad and then returned to eventually lead more than 300 slaves to Freedom in the North. The story also details how Tubman fought with the Union army during the Civil War.
The screenplay will be written by Kirk Ellis and produced by Doug Ellin. Davis and her husband Julius Tennon are also serving as executive producers through their company JuVee Prods.
There has been a lot of dissent among the Black community about the number of films depiction Black people in downtrodden, subservient roles. While I’ve always felt they were necessary, I still understood the argument. So, I’m happy to see that a film about a woman, a former slave, taking her freedom, and that of others, into her own hands is heading to the screen.
