Is The Color Purple based on a novel? Details explored ahead of release

The latest rendition of The Color Purple is finally coming to the big screen this December. Helmed by a black filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule, and based on a script by a black screenwriter, Marcus Gardley, the upcoming musical manages to bring something new to the evergreen story that was first adapted into a movie in 1985 by Steven Spielberg. By adding elaborate fantasy sequences and redefining the characters, the period drama has been endowed with a magical realist twist this time.

The movie is based on Alice Walker's celebrated Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel of the same name. But this is not the first time that the monumentally successful work has been adapted. The heartwarming and moving story of Walker's The Color Purple was made into an Oscar-nominated movie by Steven Spielberg in 1985, a Tony-winning Broadway musical production in 2005, and its revival in 2015.

---

The Color Purple: Blitz Bazawule's version of the story includes fantasy sequences

Alice Walkers' The Color Purple is set in the early 1900s in rural Georgia and follows the life and family of Celie, an impoverished black woman who has been subjected to physical and mental abuse at the hands of nearly every man in her life, starting with Mister, her husband. Finding herself trapped in a socioeconomic system built to grind her down, she strives towards her own independence, which mirrors the hard-won march toward liberty of all women from the colonized nations in the twentieth century.

Blitz Bazawule's version of The Color Purple adds fantasy sequences to the movie, which takes the audience into Celie’s imagination. According to Bazawule, this is to counterweigh the notion that abused people are docile. He says,

“I find that to be completely wrong. The abused are constantly working their way out of it. And if we were just in their heads, we will know that they are not just sitting and waiting for a savior. Celie was actively saving herself.”

The fantasy sequences are written into the screenplay and envisioned as glorious song-and-dance numbers, giving Celie more agency. Producer Scott Sanders has commented on the newness of the production, saying,

“In previous iterations, quite frankly including the stage musical, she’s a passive protagonist for a good part of the storytelling. Now, audiences can see what her inner voice was telling her, as she was moving through her self-discovery and triumph over adversity.”

Steven Spielberg has himself commented, saying that he was blown away by Blitz and his vision.

---

Actors from the Broadway musical are reprising their roles in the movie

The Color Purple will see Fantasia Taylor reprising her role as Celie Harris from the 2007 Broadway adaptation. The American Idol alumna was apparently very hesitant to take up her role but finally couldn't refuse the director and his vision.

She is joined by Halle Bailey, who portrayed Ariel in Disney's live-action Little Mermaid, in the role of Young Nettie, Celie's younger sister. The adult Nettie is played by Ciara. Danielle Brooks, too, will be reprising her role as Sofia from the 2015–2017 Broadway musical for which she received a Tony Award nomination. The character was most notably portrayed by Oprah Winfrey in the original 1985 movie.

Shug Avery, a jazz and blues singer in the story, will be played by Taraji P. Henson, and Colman Domingo will take on the part of Mister. Corey Hawkins will join the cast in the role of Harpo.

---

Coming from celebrity producers like Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and Scott Sanders, The Color Purple will make its theatrical debut on December 25, 2023.