Billy Porter to play James Baldwin in biopic

Billy Porter is set to play writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin in an upcoming biopic produced by Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group Motion Pictures.

Billy Porter will play in James Baldwin biopic

Porter and Dan McCabe will write the script for the biopic based on David Leeming’s 1994 book James Baldwin: A Biography.

The deep look into Baldwin’s life and struggles represents the culmination of a long-held creative ambition for the Emmy-, Tony- and Grammy Award-winning performer.

“As a Black queer man on this planet with relative consciousness, I find myself, like James Baldwin said, ‘in a rage all the time.’ I am because James was. I stand on James Baldwin’s shoulders, and I intend to expand his legacy for generations to come,” Porter said in a statement.

About James Baldwin

Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin was a gay African American writer and civil rights activist who spent much of his life outside the U.S., writing largely about Black identity, activism, sexuality and race relations.

James Baldwin (Photo by Allan Warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Baldwin_35AllanWarren_Allan_Warren.jpg)

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Baldwin is best-known for the iconic books, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Another Country and The Fire Next Time, which have all been turned into or inspired by movies, including If Beale Street Could Talk and I Am Not Your Negro documentary.

Production

Porter’s Incognegro Productions will co-produce the James Baldwin 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 a statement reports The Hollywood Reporter.