Emmy Winner Billy Porter to play James Baldwin in upcoming biopic

Washington [US], April 15 : Emmy award-winning actor Billy Porter is all set to portray the role of legendary novelist, essayist and activist James Baldwin in the upcoming biopic.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a US-based media outlet, Billy Porter and Dan McCabe will pen the script for the theatrical feature based on David Leeming's 1994 book James Baldwin: A Biography. Broadway-trained Porter is a longtime devotee of Baldwin, having quoted from the legendary author and civil rights campaigner during his 2019 Emmy-winning acceptance speech.

Baldwin, who was born in Harlem in 1924, was a gay African American writer and civil rights activist who spent most of his life outside the United States due to his childhood racism, and where he wrote extensively about Black identity, activism, sexuality, and race relations, as per The Hollywood Reporter.

Previously his best-selling novels like 'Go Tell It in the mountain', 'Notes of a Native Son', 'Another Country', and 'The Fire Next Time' were turned into or inspired movies.

Porter's Incognegro Productions will be co-producing the upcoming biopic along with Allen Media Group.

"Billy Porter and Dan McCabe's talent and commitment to amplifying James Baldwin's legacy and contributions are invaluable and unmatched for this unique and epic story," said Allen, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, in his own statement, reported The Hollywood Reporter.

The official release date of the biopic is still awaited.