Yahoo News Put your shoulders back and look The Color Purple trailer straight in the eye 'cause it...is...here
The Color Purple has played a significant part of Oprah Winfrey's life for nearly 40 years.
From her Oscar-nominated acting debut in the 1985 film directed by Steven Spielberg to producing the 2005 musical adaptation on Broadway and its 2015 revival, she's now an executive producer (alongside Spielberg, Scott Sanders, and Quincy Jones) of the movie musical, which premieres on Christmas this year.
The movie's first trailer (above) has just dropped — full of striking visuals, elaborate production numbers, and Fantasia Barrino singing the house down — living up to Winfrey's promise that this is "not your mama's Color Purple."
Warner Bros The cast of the movie musical 'The Color Purple'
Based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel, The Color Purple starred Whoopi Goldberg as Celie with Winfrey as Sofia, a part taken over by Danielle Brooks in the 2023 film, directed by Blitz Bazawule.
Winfrey says the first time she saw Brooks in costume "triggered" her, taking her back to the time filming the movie and how deeply it affected her.
"The Color Purple changed the trajectory of my life," Winfrey recalls during a Q&A with Bazawule after a screening of the trailer. "It was the beginning of the ascension of everything that happened in my life...so it was emotional."
Barrino makes her film debut as Celie, reprising the role she earned praise for on Broadway, opposite Brooks. The rest of the impressive cast includes Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo, Danielle Brooks, Corey Hawkins, Ciara, Halle Bailey, and H.E.R. , also in her acting debut.
Winfrey calls this newest imagining of an American classic a "revival for joy, a revival for hope," and a "revival for forgiveness," emphasizing the universality of Celie's final declaration of being "here."
"When [Fantasia] sings that anthem, 'I...am...here,'" Winfrey says, "she is speaking to everybody who's been told no, everybody who's been turned down, everybody who's been turned back, everybody who's been allowed to believe that they couldn't make it and then they did."
The Color Purple hits theaters Dec. 25. Watch the trailer above.
Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.
Related content:
