Writer and director Barry Jenkins, whose latest work was the critically acclaimed “If Beale Street Could Talk,” will take on directing stripes for a biopic on ballet legend Alvin Ailey, reports Variety. Jenkins also wrote and directed “Moonlight,” for which he won an Academy Award.
Fox Searchlight announced the project back in March but is just now naming Jenkins at the helm. Singer/songwriter Alicia Keys is also on board, working as a producer with three other women. Jenkins is also named as an executive producer. Ailey founded the revolutionary Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which broke ground in 1958 as an interracial dance company. His composition “Revelations” became one of the most performed dance pieces in history.
Among his many awards, Ailey received a Kennedy Center Honor. He died in 1989 at age 58. In 2014, President Barack Obama posthumously honored Ailey with the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom.
