Robert O'Hara to Direct Film of BARBECUE Starring Colman Domingo

According to Deadline, playwright Robert O'Hara will be bringing Barbecue to the big screen.

O'Hara will be directing the feature film adaptation of his play, which will star Colman Domingo, Marisa Tomei, and Danai Gurira. 

Domingo is no stranger to Barbecue, having directed a production of the play at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Onscreen, Domingo recently starred in the film version of The Color Purple and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in 2023's Rustin.

O'Hara's other stage credits include his play Insurrection: Holding History; as well as directing Wild With Happy and The Brother/Sister Plays (Part 2). Other Off-Broadway and regional credits include Bootycandy (Obie Award) at Playwrights Horizons, In the Continuum (Obie Award) at Primary Stages, Marie Antoinette at Steppenwolf Theater Company, Five Guys Named Moe and The Mountaintop at Arena Theater. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his direction of Slave Play, which is headed to the West End this year, with O'Hara once again directing.

The plot centers on the O'Mallerys who have gathered in their local park to share some Barbecue and straight talk with their sister Barbara, whose spiral of drugs and recklessness has forced her siblings to stage an open-air intervention. But the event becomes raucous and unpredictable as familial stereotypes collide with hard realities, and racial politics slam up against the stories we tell-and maybe even believe-about who we were and who we become. 

Kent Gash directed the original production of the play at the Public.