FENCES' Viola Davis Leads 'The Help' Film

According to Variety, Viola Davis will star in DreamWorks Studios' 'The Help,' an adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel.  Davis, who is currently in previews for Broadway's Fences also starring Denzel Washington, will play Aibileen.

'The Help' tells the story of African American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s.  The novel is told from the perspective of three characters. Aibileen, a middle aged African American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny, an African American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Skeeter, a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.

Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Michael Radcliffe will produce the film under their Production Company 1492 Prods. Brunson Green of Harbinger Productions will also co-produce. The film will be written and directed by Stockett's childhood friend Tate Taylor, who optioned film rights to the book before its release.

Davis won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II in 2001. She won a second Drama Desk Award for Intimate Apparel three years later.  Her films include Traffic (2000), Antwone Fisher (2002), and Solaris (2002). Her performance in Doubt (2008) brought widespread recognition and she was nominated an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

To see David in Fences alongside Denzel Washington, visit www.fencesonbroadway.com.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.