Malcolm Washington Hopes THE PIANO LESSON Film Will Bring August Wilson to New Audiences

Later this year, a new adaptation of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson will hit Netflix. Directed by Malcolm Washington, the film stars several actors reprising their roles from the recent Broadway revival including Michael Potts, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, and Samuel L. Jackson.

In a new interview with Variety, director Washington shed some light on his approach to adapting the play for the screen. He recalls falling in love with the dialogue first when his brother, John David was preparing to star in the stage version.

“I was picking up these pieces of paper with these beautiful monologues and I was like, ‘What is this?’ If you read August Wilson, you know in each of his monologues, there’s so many layers of meaning. If you’re tapped into that, it’ll just stop you," Washington told Variety.

With the film, Washington hopes to bring a new audience to Wilson's work: "...[My brother and I] wanted younger audiences — audiences that looked like us, in our age range — to experience it and feel like they had access to it. To feel like it was something made for them and not just for their parents," the director shared. "...The vision that we were presenting was pretty bold. We were taking a work that was very sacred and revered, and we’re trying to break it a little bit..."

This marks the third film adaptation in Wilson's 10-play American Century Cycle, which Malcolm's father, Denzel, is producing for the screen. Malcolm calls it "such an important project" adding that "it’s so cool to see how they can all develop and what can happen after this one." Read more at Variety.

Official Synopsis

 A battle is brewing in the Charles Household. At the center stands a prized heirloom piano tearing two siblings apart. On one side, a brother (John David Washington) plans to build the family fortune by selling it. On the other, a sister (Danielle Deadwyler) will go to any lengths to hold onto the sole vestige of the family’s heritage.  Their uncle (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to mediate,  but even he can’t hold back the ghosts of the past.

Adapted from August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork, THE PIANO LESSON explores the intergenerational dynamics of identity, resilience and transcendence - revealing startling truths about how we perceive the past and who gets to define our legacy. The movie will receive a limited theatrical release on November 8 and be available to stream on Netflix on November 22.