Halle Bailey is making her way back to the big screen.
The singer-songwriter and actress has been tapped to star in Universal Pictures’ new coming-of-age film inspired by the life of noted producer and musician, Pharrell Williams. The untitled musical will be set in 1977 Virginia Beach, and is based Williams’ childhood growing up in the city’s Atlantis Apartments, according to Deadline. Williams will serve as producer of the film and Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is set to direct.
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This will be the third musical film under Baileys belt, after she made a splash starring as Princess Ariel in the live-action adaptation of Disney’s The Little Mermaid in 2023. She followed that up with a role as Young Nettie in the film adaptation of The Color Purple musical later that year. Bailey has won an NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress and has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and a People’s Choice Award. Both as part of the singing duo Chloe x Halle and as a solo artist, she has garnered six GRAMMY Award nominations.
While details about Bailey’s role in this musical are under wraps, she will be joined in the cast by Academy Award winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) and star of Genius: MLK/X, Kelvin Harrison Jr. Martin Hynes (Toy Story 4) and Steven Levenson (Tick, Tick…Boom!) are set to write the script for the upcoming musical biopic. A release date has not been announced.
Cover photo: Halle Bailey Cast in Upcoming Pharrell Willams Biopic / Photo credit: IMDb/Getty Images