Is it time for a new take on The Color Purple? Chris Columbus thinks so: he’s fast-tracked a screen version of bestselling novel The Help, Kathryn Stockett’s book about African-American domestic servants in Mississippi and their rich white employers before civil rights kicked in, which has been sitting on the NY Times bestseller list for a whopping 35 weeks since publication in February.
Columbus’s production company 1492 (however much we hear that, it still makes us go “phnaaar!”) has grabbed it with both hands, with Columbus set to co-produce.
It’s written and directed by actor-turned-director Tate Taylor, involved, according to Variety, well before the novel became a hit for first-time author Stockett (who, in true JK Rowling form, was reportedly rejected by 50 agents before getting published). Taylor grew up with Stockett –his mother inspired one of the novel’s matriarchs – and reportedly provided so much help that she let him have first look, leading to him optioning it well before publication.
**The Help **is set to start shooting in the South in the spring.