Hailey van Braam
Netflix tweeted on December 17, informing the audience that Regina King will star as Shirley Chisholm in a new movie written and directed by John Ridley.
Regina King will star as the trailblazing Shirley Chisholm in a new film written and directed by John Ridley. ⁰
The film, which King will also produce, chronicles Chisholm's historic presidential campaign, based on exclusive conversations with her family and friends. pic.twitter.com/Stnt0m0GMj
— Netflix (@netflix) December 16, 2021
Also involved in producing the film, King will depict the life of the one amazing Shirley Anita Chisholm, born November 30, 1924, and passed January 1 2005. Chisholm was an author, educator and politician who became the first black lady to be elected in the U.S. Congress in 1968 to represent New York’s 12th congressional district, which she did for seven terms from 1969 to 1983.
Chisholm was also the first black candidate to campaign for President in the United States in 1972 and the first female to campaign for the Democrat presidential seat.
The Oscar-winning actress’ sister, Reina will also serve as the movie’s producer. Apart from this film, Ridley has been involved in small screen production in recent years. He created and directed the anthology series American Crime that aired for three seasons from 2015 to 2017. He also co-wrote and co-directed the six-episode British drama series Guerrilla that debuted in April 2017.
Ridley worked alongside Carlton Cuse to write and direct the upcoming Apple TV+ medical drama TV miniseries Five Days at Memorial. His most recent project is the science fiction film Needle in a Timestack that was released on October 15 2021 by Lionsgate.
Starring alongside King is Christina Jackson, Amirah Vann, André Holland, Lance Reddick, Dorian Missick, Lucas Hedges, Michael Cherrie, Terrence Howard and W. Earl Brown.
Keeping things hush, for now, Netflix hasn’t revealed further details about the movie, including its possible release date. One thing we know for sure is that filming takes place in King’s hometown, Cincinnati.
