Denzel Washingtonalready has a plan to produce eight new movies in the coming years, and all of them were written by the same person behind his 2016 hitFences. Denzel Washington is widely considered one of thebest actors of all time, and for good reason.Washington has played nine Oscar-nominated rolesover the years, and he’s won the Academy Award twice: for Best Actor in 2001’sTraining Dayand for Best Supporting Actor in 1989’sGlory. Many people want to know what Washington is doing next; luckily, he already has a plan to produce eight new movies.
Though he won’t necessarily be starring in all eight films he’s set to produce, Denzel Washington could easily channel one of his best movies for them. Washington’s 2016 filmFencesearned him one of his Oscar nominations and also secured a massively impressiveRotten Tomatoesscore of 92%. That’s a great sign for Washington’s future projects, because eight of his upcoming movies will be adaptations of plays written by the same playwright responsible forFences: August Wilson.
Denzel Washington Made A Deal With The August Wilson Estate To Adapt His 10 Plays
Wilson’s Plays Tell The Story Of Black Americans Through The 20th Century
In 2015, Denzel Washington announced that he would produce movie adaptations of all 10 of August Wilson’s series of plays called thePittsburgh Cycle(viaThe Hollywood Reporter).August Wilson won two separate Pulitzer Prizes for Drama forFencesandThe Piano Lessonin 1987 and 1990, respectively. Wilson’sPittsburgh Cycle- which is sometimes called theCentury Cycle- was written to showcase and celebrate the experience of Black Americans throughout the 20th century. As such, each play in the cycle is set in and meant to represent a different decade up to the 1990s.
Gem of the Ocean
1900s
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
Radio Golf
1990s
August Wilson died in 2005, so the playwright’s estate gave Denzel Washington and HBO the right to adapt his plays into film.In 2015, Washington said he would be an executive producer for the remaining nine adaptations.
We’re going to do one a year for the next nine years. I’m really excited about that. That they put it in my hands, the estate, and trust me. That’s good enough for me. It doesn’t get any better than that.
During the event where he announced his partnership with the August Wilson Estate, Washington expressed his love for the playwright’s works and his enduring legacy. As Washington said, “[Wilson’s]stories are specifically African American stories, but the themes are universal… his work will live forever to be interpreted by actors and directors for as long as we’re here.“Denzel Washington clearly has a deep respect for Wilson’s plays, which should help him complete the eight remaining plays Wilson penned.
Denzel Washington Has Done Two August Wilson Adaptations With Another Upcoming In November 2024
Washington Already Made Fences & Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; The Piano Lesson Will Be His Third August Wilson Adaptation
Denzel Washington began adapting August Wilson’s plays into films by directing and producing 2016’sFences, where he also played Troy Maxson opposite Viola Davis' Rose Maxson. Since then,Washington has produced another of Wilson’s plays:Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which premiered in 2020 and starred Viola Davis as Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman as Levee. In addition to those first two adaptations, Washington has completed a third film that will be released first in theaters and then on Netflix in November 2024:The Piano Lesson, which stars Samuel L. Jackson as Doaker and John David Washington as Boy Willie.
The Piano Lesson Review: Soulful Star-Studded Adaptation Is A Therapeutic Discovery Of Trauma Relief
Malcolm Washington’s soulful adaptation and directorial debut feels like a therapeutic discovery of trauma relief through memory and legacy.
Denzel Washington will be adapting seven more August Wilson plays afterThe Piano Lesson,starting withJoe Turner’s Come and Gone, which makes sense given the actor’s history with theater and Wilson specifically.Denzel Washington has appeared in five Broadway productions during his lifetime and has a long history with stage plays. He even starred in a Broadway revival ofFencesjust six years before his movie adaptation was released, which is likely a reason he was chosen to adapt the playwright’s works. If anyone is up to the task of adapting August Wilson’s influential works, it’sDenzel Washington.
Fences
Cast
Fences is a period drama written by American playwright August Wilson. It was directed by Denzel Washington, who also plays Troy Maxson, a garbage collector whose checkered past prevented him from fulfilling his potential as a baseball player. The movie was well-received by both critics and viewers, with many praising Washington’s performance as the bitter sanitation worker.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Set in 1927 Chicago, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom focuses on Ma Rainey, the real-life trailblazing jazz singer who had a successful music career from 1899 to 1939. The George C. Wolfe-directed film stars Viola Davis as Ma Rainey and also marks Chadwick Boseman’s last film released after his tragic passing in 2020.
