David Oyelowo and ‘Moonlight’ playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney are teaming up with Disney.
David Oyelowo (Selma) is attached to star in a brand new Disney musical penned by Moonlight playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. The project is being called Cyrano the Moor and it would take from two different sources. According to The Hollywood Reporter, One of those is William Shakespeare’s revenge story Othello and the other is a classic French play Cyrano de Bergerac, which tells the story of “a large-nosed romantic who uses his words to help another man win the affection of the woman he loves.” How exactly those two stories will be merged is anyone’s guess, but that will be part of the fun.
Cyrano the Moor will be another in a long list of musicals currently in the works for Disney. Certainly, if the success of Beauty and the Beast told Disney anything it is that audiences are hungry for musicals. Cyrano the Moor joins other Disney musicals such as The Lion King and Aladdin both of which are currently in production. Oyelowo has worked with Disney before on the chess drama, Queen of Katwe. That film deserved much more attention than it got, but Disney must have enjoyed working with Oyelowo to give him such a big project.
As for McCraney, you would think life would be crazy after his work was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. According to the LA Times, he is busy with a new play entitled Head of Passes and developing a new TV series for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network. Now he can add Cyrano the Moor to those list of projects as well. This might be even more exciting than Disney’s other musicals since this will be a new musical from the studio. Hopefully, it gets off the ground sooner than later.
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