Danielle Deadwyler & More Join Samuel L. Jackson & John David Washington in THE PIANO LESSON Film Adaptation

Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, and Michael Potts will reprise their Broadway performances in the upcoming film adaptation of The Piano Lesson, which is currently set for a Netflix premiere.

Malcolm Washington will direct the upcoming feature, which will also include Danielle Deadwyler and Corey Hawkins. The film will be written by Virgil Williams and Malcolm Washington.

The Piano Lesson is set in Pittsburgh's Hill District in 1936. A brother and sister are locked in a war over the fate of a family heirloom: a piano carved with the faces of their ancestors. Only by revisiting history can the siblings endeavor to move forward.

The Piano Lesson is a part of August Wilson's American Century Cycle, which chronicles the Black experience throughout the 20th Century over the course of ten plays.

The Broadway production was the highest grossing revival of a play on Broadway and the highest grossing Wilson production on Broadway ever.

August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, which premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1987 and starred a then-39-year-old Samuel L. Jackson as Boy Willie, is the fourth play in the American Century Cycle.

Three years later, a new production, starring Carl Gordon, Charles S. Dutton and S. Epatha Merkerson, opened at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, and soon transferred to Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre. In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama, The Piano Lesson won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, the Peabody Award and was nominated for the 1990 Tony Award for Best Play.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was released globally on Netflix in 2021. The film received five Academy Award nominations (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Costume Design) and two Academy Award wins (Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design).

Directed by George C. Wolfe and adapted for the screen by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the film stars Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Taylour Paige, Dusan Brown, Jeremy Shamos and Jonny Coyne.

In 2010 Denzel Washington and Viola Davis starred in the revival of August Wilson's Fences on Broadway. They both won Tony Awards for their roles. In 2016 Washington directed and starred alongside Viola Davis in the film adaptation of Fences which received 3 Academy Awards nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, and an Academy Award win for Viola Davis.