News

Madonna is to direct her third film, an adaptation of Rebecca Walker’s debut novel Ade: A Love Story.

It tells the story of an American student who falls in love with a young Muslim man on an idyllic island off the the coast of Kenya before the clash of cultures complicates the relationship.

Walker, daughter of The Color Purple author Alice, will co-produce the film.

Madonna, whose previous films were WE and Filth and Wisdom, called the book “an incredible journey” last year.

After it was published in October, the pop star posted a photo of the book cover and the message: “Read this book! An incredible journey! A beautiful LOVE story!”

The romance will be co-produced by Bruce Cohen, who produced Silver Linings Playbook and American Beauty.

Madonna and the producers are now searching for a screenwriter to adapt the book, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Madonna’s last film was WE, about the relationship between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, which opened to several one-star reviews in the UK in 2011.

The Hollywood Reporter said WE grossed a relatively low $583,000 (£352,000) at the US box office. It failed to make the top 10 in the UK.

‘A challenge’
While promoting the film at Venice Film Festival in 2011, Madonna told BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz making it had been “a bloody nightmare”.

“There wasn’t anything easy about it, it was all a challenge,” said the singer, who made her directorial debut with 2008’s Filth and Wisdom.

Since WE, Madonna has concentrated on her music career, with a number one album MDNA and huge world tour. She was named the world’s top-earning celebrity by Forbes in 2013.

The 55-year-old trumped the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg to make an estimated $125m (£80m) from a combination of music, clothing and her fragrance lines.

The magazine said it was Madonna’s highest annual earnings since it began tracking earnings in 1999.

BBC

Madonna is getting back into the director’s chair.

The performer, who last directed 2011’s stylish period romance W.E., is attached to direct Ade: A Love Story, an adaptation of the debut novel by Rebecca Walker.

Bruce Cohen is producing the indie adaptation via his Bruce Cohen Productions. Jessica Leventhal, the company’s director of development, and Walker also are producing.

Walker, the daughter of The Color Purple author Alice Walker and civil rights lawyer Mel Leventhal, wrote about growing up interracial and with mixed religions in her memoir Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self.

In her debut novel, published October 2013, Walker creates a narrator similar to herself (the mother is Christian while the father is Jewish). The story centers on a 19-year-old American student traveling with a feminist companion in Africa who falls in love with a young Muslim man on an island off the coast of Kenya. Their hastily made plans to marry, however, get blown away by cultural and political forces.

Although very much a love story, many of the themes and subjects in Ade are those Madonna has touched upon in envelope-pushing ways at the height of her music career. Sex, religion, race, lesbianism all figure into the story one way or another. Already a fan of the book, Madonna also provided a blurb that appeared in promotional materials.

CAA is arranging financing. Madonna and the producers on the hunt for a screenwriter to adapt the book.

Cohen was a producer on Silver Linings Playbook and is working on adapting the graphic novel The Fifth Beatle.

Madonna, repped by CAA, also directed the 2008 comedy Filth and Wisdom. The Weinstein Company released W.E., which, despite curiosity, only grossed $583,000 at the domestic box office.

Madonna is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment. Walker is repped by UTA, Anderson Literary Management, and Shep Rosenman at Katz Golden Rosenman.

Hollywood Reporter