Viola Davis to tackle the fashion project Black men have been waiting for

Mar 13, 2018

Viola Davis and Julius Tennon thegrio.com — LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 30: Actors Julius Tennon (L) and Viola Davis attend The 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 30, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. 25650_021 (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Turner)

Viola Davis is taking on a project that will give historical context to black fashion and bring its long ignored history to the forefront.

Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon have optioned the book Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style written by Shantrelle P. Lewis. Under their JuVee Productions company, the book will be made into a television documentary along with 44 Blue Productions.

“This project looks at how men dress in the Dandy style across the world and how they influence culture through a powerful positive lens,” said Viola Davis and Julius Tennon in a joint statement.

Lewis is excited about the project too.

“I’m overjoyed to bring this project to television,” Lewis said in a press release. “Today, when race sits at the center of many conversations, Dandy Lions argues how style has, and can be, a tool of resistance, while also asserting that Blackness, despite its often one-dimensional misrepresentation in the media, is not a monolith,” Lewis added.

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The documentary will reportedly take an insightful look into the history of black men’s bold, tailored fashion in Africa, the United States and the Caribbean, according to Philly.com.

Viola teams up with Lupita

The boxoffice success and critical acclaim of Black Panther has everyone clamoring for more of the story—and Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o are ready to deliver!

Shadow and Act has confirmed that Lupita Nyong’o and Viola Davis will star in an exciting new project exploring the true story behind the Panther’s female fighting force, the Dora Milaje.

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The film, entitled The Woman King, is based on an extraordinary mother-daughter story acquired by TriStar. “There’s no one more extraordinary than Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o to bring them to life,” said Hannah Minghella, president of TriStar Pictures, in a statement.

The film will tell the story of the Kingdom of Dahomey, the kingdom that reportedly inspired Christopher Priest — the first Black comic book writer for Black Panther—to create King T’Challa’s fierce female army.

According to Shadow and Act:

The film is inspired by true events in the Kingdom of Dahomey, a powerful state in 18th century. It will tell the story of Nanisca (Davis), general of the all-female military unit known as the Amazons, and her daughter Nawi (Nyong’o), who together fought the French and neighboring tribes who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.

“The Woman King has the potential to be a game changer for women of color everywhere,” Tennon told Shadow and Act. “The Woman King will tell one of history’s greatest forgotten stories from the real world in which we live, where an army of African warrior women staved off slavery, colonialism and inter-tribal warfare to unify a nation.”