John Boyega and Daniel Deadwyler will play the late soul legend Otis Redding and his widow Zelma Redding in The Fifth Season’s upcoming biopic Otis & Zelma.
Directed by breakout director Channing Godfrey Peoples and produced by The Fifth Season, Homegrown Pictures, and Kinfolk Management and Media, this music-based film is one of the most influential films of our lifetime. It chronicles the life of Otis Redding, considered one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time. Featuring unforgettable hits such as “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “Respect,” “These Arms of Mine,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” and “Hard to Handle.” Redding’s burgeoning superstar career was tragically cut short when he died in a 1967 plane crash, leaving behind Zelma and three young children. He was 26 years old.
Otis and Zelma, with revisions by Godfrey Peoples, is written by acclaimed playwright, screenwriter and actor Donetta Lavinia Glaze. The film “celebrates the short ten years Otis and Zelma spent together and their everlasting love story after his death,” reads an early synopsis of the project. “As much as Otis’ love for Zelma inspired him, Zelma’s resilience and determination to continue to uphold her musical legacy over the past 56 years has inspired her.”
News of the film, which has the full support of Zelma Redding and Otis Redding’s estate, is that Otis will be posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, October 4. It was announced in response. Fifth Season is co-producing the project with Stefani. Allain from Homegrown Pictures and Arron Saxe from Kinfolk Management + Media. Amos Newman, Homegrown Pictures’ Claire Brooks, Boyega and Deadwyler will serve as executive producers.
Boyega is known for his role as Finn in the latest Star Wars trilogy, and in 2021 he won a Golden Globe for his performance in the Emmy-nominated miniseries “Small Ax” directed by Steve McQueen. Award-winning. Since breaking out in the BAFTA-nominated 2011 sci-fi film Attack the Block, Boyega has starred in films such as They Clone Tyrone, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, and He has built an illustrious career in major films such as ‘Breaking’. and “Pacific Rim: Uprising.”
Deadwyler is best known for her role as Emmitt Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley in the acclaimed 2022 film Till, for which she won the Gotham Award for Outstanding Leading Role and the National It won the Board of Review’s Breakthrough Performance Award. Other awards and nominations from BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics Choice Association. She was also nominated for an Independent Spirit TV Award for her work on HBO’s limited series “Station Eleven.” She is currently garnering awards buzz for her role opposite Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington in the feature film adaptation of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson for Netflix. She will next be seen in Jaume Collet-Serra’s Netflix action thriller Carry On, and will star in and executive produce Blumhouse and Universal Pictures’ thriller The Women in the Yard. Take command.
2020’s Miss Juneteenth, Godfrey Peoples’ feature debut as a writer and director, starring Emmy nominee Nicole Beharie, won the National Board of Review Award for Best Directorial Debut. It also won the SXSW Louis Black “Lone Star” Award. The film was also nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards and a Sundance Jury Award. Godfrey Peoples has since directed episodes of series such as the Emmy Award-winning drama anthology “Genius” and the Apple TV+ anthology “Roar.”
Boyega is represented by UTA, Sloan, Offer, and Weber & Dern. Deadwyler is represented by Paradigm, Play Management and Ziffren Brittenham. Godfrey Peoples is repped by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Victoria S. Cook. Glaze is represented by Mr. Gersh, Management and Sullivan Talent Group.
