FKA Twigs has stepped into the role of a lifetime.
The Grammy-winning artist has begun principal photography as legendary entertainer and activist Josephine Baker in a new Studiocanal biopic. Production kicked off in France and will run through November 13, with additional shooting taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Joining FKA Twigs in the ensemble are Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Giuseppe Maggio, Grégory Montel, Benjamin Millepied, Féodor Atkine, Alex Lutz and Harmony Riley.
The film traces Baker’s arc from a childhood marked by racial segregation in the United States to her breakthrough as one of the most celebrated stage and screen performers of 1920s Paris, through her service with the French Resistance during World War II, and into her 1951 return to America, where she confronted a country still shaped by the same injustices she had fled decades earlier.
Josephine Baker is directed and co-written by Maïmouna Doucouré, the César and Sundance winning filmmaker behind Cuties and Hawa, working from a script developed with co-writer Olivier Lorelle. Studiocanal and Bien ou Bien Productions are producing, with CPB Films and Leyland Films serving as associated producers. The project carries the official blessing of Baker’s sons, Jean-Claude Bouillon Baker and Brian Bouillon Baker, along with the Rainbow Tribe.
FKA Twigs brings a cross-disciplinary background to the role. A singer-songwriter, dancer-choreographer and visual artist, she broke into film with Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy and has since appeared in Rupert Sanders’ The Crow and David Lowery’s A24 feature Mother Mary, opposite Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel.
Doucouré’s short film Mother(s) won roughly 70 international prizes, including the Sundance Film Festival International Award and the 2017 César for Best Short Film. Her debut feature Cuties took the directing award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance before reaching Netflix audiences globally.
Studiocanal will handle theatrical distribution across its own territory footprint, including the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand, and is managing worldwide sales.