Barry Jenkins To Direct Film About Choreographer Alvin Ailey
(AP) — Barry Jenkins will direct a film based on the life of choreographer Alvin Ailey.
A spokesperson for Fox Searchlight on Monday confirmed that the studio is developing the project, with the "Moonlight" filmmaker directing. Jenkins last helmed the Oscar-nominated James Baldwin adaptation "If Beale Street Could Talk."
Raised in segregated rural Texas, Ailey became a pioneering choreographer, dancer and director who helped popularize modern dance. He died in 1989 at the age of 58 from AIDS-related complications. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Beyond proud and humbled to have the opportunity to bring Brother Ailey's life to the screen alongside @julianbreece and my partners at @WePastel, @foxsearchlight and the wonderful folks of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater ????????♥️ -- https://t.co/idgEjwlZen via @Deadline
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) June 3, 2019
The film will be partly based on Jennifer Dunning's biography "Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance." Searchlight last year began developing the film after securing the rights to Ailey's choreography from the Ailey Organization.
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