.@maryjblige joins the #Mudbound cast alongside @JasonMitch, Garrett Hedlund, Jason ClarK, and Carey Mulligan. Welcome to the family, Mary!
— Macro Ventures (@Macro_Ventures) May 25, 2016
As you can see from the MACRO Ventures tweet above, Mary J. Blige has joined “Straight Outta Compton’s” Jason Mitchell, as well as Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, and Garrett Hedlund in a big-screen adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s 2009 novel “Mudbound,” which Dee Rees is attached to direct.
Jordan’s award-winning debut novel is set in 1946, and follows the city-bred Laura McAllan who is trying to raise her children on her husband’s Mississippi Delta cotton farm just after WWII, and two soldiers returning home from the war – one of them is white, and the other is black.
Rees (“Pariah,” “Bessie”) is directing the MACRO Ventures-financed drama from a script she’s rewriting, from a draft previously penned by Virgil Williams.
Charles King, Cassian Elwes, Kim Roth, Sally Jo Effenson, Chris Lemole, Tim Zajaros, and Carl Effenson are producing.
Certainly an intriguing next project for Dee Rees who’s last work was HBO’s Bessie Smith telepic starring Queen Latifah – itself also a period piece, set in the early half of the 20th century.
Blige was last seen in “The Wiz Live!” on NBC last fall.
