(Left) Jeffrey Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison in writer/director Cord Jefferson’s ‘American Fiction,’ an Orion Pictures Release. Photo credit: Claire Folger. © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC. All Rights Reserved. (Right) Octavia Spencer as Kimberly in Apple TV+’s ‘Spirited .’
Preview:
- Jeffrey Wright and Octavia Spencer are starring in ‘Death of a Salesman’.
- Director Chinonye Chukwu is adapting the award-winning play.
- Focus Features and Amblin are backing the production.
Here’s a new project that has prestige written over it from all angles. ‘American Fiction’s Jeffrey Wright and ‘The Help’Oscar winner Octavia Spencer are on board to star in a new adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning Arthur Miller play ‘Death of a Salesman’, per a report by Deadline.
Putting it together is ‘Till’ and ‘Clemency’ filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu, who has written the new adaptation with stage veteran Tony Kushner (himself a Pulitzer Prize winner for ‘Angels in America’).
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What’s the story of ‘Death of a Salesman’?
(L to R) Director Chinonye Chukwu and actor Jalyn Hill on the set of TILL, released by Orion Pictures. Credit: Lynsey Weatherspoon / Orion Pictures. © 2022 ORION PICTURES RELEASING LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Miller’s 1949 prize-winning two-act play first premiered on Broadway in February 1949 and ran for 742 performances.
The story follows aging traveling salesman Willy Loman (Wright’s role in the film, while Spencer will play his wife, Linda) who tries to fix his life with the family he always put down as he put work first.
‘Salesman’ won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play, and focuses on themes of infidelity, truth and the American Dream.
There have been myriad adaptations for TV with Dustin Hoffman, Warren Mitchell, Brian Dennehy among those to have played Willy Loman. The 1951 movie adaptation starred Fredric March as Willy and was nominated for five Academy Awards.
Amblin is producing this one alongside Focus Features.
What else are Jeffrey Wright and Octavia Spencer working on?
Jeffrey Wright attends the Los Angeles Premiere of MGM’s ‘American Fiction’ at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Stewart Cook/Getty Images for MGM.
Wright was seen this year across screens big and small. He played the role of Isaac in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 (with more expected from the character when Season 3 eventually appears) and espionage thriller series ‘The Agency: Central Intelligence’.
Movie-wise, he was Oscar-nominated for ‘American Fiction’, popped up in the ensemble of Wes Anderson’s latest, ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ and is drawing praise for his role in Spike Lee’s ‘Highest 2 Lowest’, due in theaters on September 5th.
And while it hasn’t been officially confirmed, he’s likely to be back on comic book duty for ‘The Batman: Part II’, once that finally starts filming.
As for Spencer, she was seen in ‘Tow’ and heard as a character in ‘Smurfs’.
She has several projects coming up, including a sequel to 2019 thriller ‘Ma’ and TV limited series ‘Ride or Die’.
When will ‘Death of a Salesman’ be on screens?
With the movie still to go before cameras, Focus has yet to announce a release date. But we’d be shocked if it didn’t find a prime awards season spot next year.
Octavia Spencer in 2019’s ‘Ma’. Photo: Universal Pictures.