from The Hollywood Reporter:

CANNES -- R&B songstress Mary J. Blige will tune up her jazz vocals after signing to star in Cynthia Mort's "Nina," a movie about legendary singer Nina Simone.

Mort's script focuses on Simone's relationship with her assistant Clifton Henderson, who will be played by David Oyelowo, backers said.

William Morris Endeavor's Global Finance & Distribution Group brought the film to U.K. production, finance and studio facility operator Ealing Studios.

Ealing is financing, producing and selling internationally the $10 million movie scheduled to shoot in the fall this year. WME Global is handling North American rights.

Simone was a singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist.

Mort's resume includes a stint as a writer-producer on TV's "Rosanne" and "Will & Grace" and as creator of "Tell Me You Love Me."

That could be fantastic....OR it could be the worst thing ever! I don't see a lot of middle ground. As much praise as Mary J. gets, I wonder if she really has that kind of range (both vocally and dramatically). I recall seeing her in a few movies, one where I think she played....believe it or not, Q-Tip's mother (I don't think it was meant to be a surreal movie, but I believe Elvis Costello was a cop or something!), and she is usually good.
[Edited 5/13/10 11:48am]

She bought the RIGHTS back in 2005. The whole "set to play" deal is already clear,,,,,now all they gotta do is start shooting.

Basically, what I'm tryna say is this seems like will be another "Marvin Gaye/James Brown" bio-pic empty promise.

I would like to see this biopic as a go. Whether Mary is good or not, to me it will just be a win, because a)it will mean that younger peeps get to learn about this great artist b) it means that there will be a movie where a black woman is the main character-it's a win win.

Question-what happened to Nina's daughter, Lisa?
[Edited 5/13/10 12:14pm]

Honestly, I don't think MJB is much of an actress, but I could be wrong...

scriptgirl said:

Still performing

Last I heard from her was the tour she did with Paulette McWilliams' daughter, Lalah Hathaway, Milini(Chaka Khan's daughter) and somebody else I forgot about.

Mary's camp was enthusiastic about making the film, because they signed the deal when Ray Charles' bio-pic rush was STILL fresh.

I just hope it doesn't turn out as another "Loretta Divine/Dinah Washington" scenario.

RnBAmbassador said:

who sold her the rights?

not sure how this will turn out,but Nina's life story is really interesting.If they do it right,this could be an interesting biopic.

at one point,wasn't Lauryn Hill interested in this role? I coulda sworn I read that somewhere.

SoulAlive said:

DAV123 said:

that would have been might pick for sure...damn man.

DAV123 said:

Lauryn would have played that role PERFECTLY.

I want to be optimistic about this but after reading that it's hard as I can't stand any of those shows. It will be interesting to see how this goes either way. I really hope this will not be Mary's Glitter lol

This could be interesting, although wouldn't it make more sense to hire someone who actually looks like Nina (giant head, no chin)? Mary isn't known for her acting but she hits enough off-key notes that she should be able to do Nina justice. Nina is an amazing singer because of the emotional heft of her songs, not because of any technical skill. She's like Bob Dylan in that sense.

I think Maty can pull it off...she has alot of emotion to convey in her songs especially the last track she did for Precious (I Can See In Color). Her acting was ok on I Can Do Bad All By Myself too....not anything award winning because she was just co starring but we shall see.

Why!?!?!?!