‘The Woman King’: Read The Screenplay Dana Stevens Forged For The Viola Davis-Starring West African War Epic
deadline.comEditors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.
The battle to make the historical action film The Woman King started as early as 2015 when producer Cathy Schulman and actress-producer Maria Bello approached Viola Davis about starring in an all-Black female warrior tale.
With Davis attached and Sony’s TriStar Pictures onboard, the team offered screenwriter Dana Stevens the chance of a lifetime she couldn’t refuse.
The Woman King, based on a real faction of Beninese female soldiers known as the Agoije, follows its leader Nanisca (Davis) and her fierce tribe of warriors as they defend the kingdom of Dahomey from a violent neighboring clan and Europeans capitalizing on the slave trade.
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