Producer of Fruitvale Station and Dope will take on the life of the radical, scholar and author, with Davis exec-producing

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A biopic of prominent civil rights activist Angela Davis is in development.

CodeBlack films, a division of Lionsgate aimed at bringing positive representations of African Americans to the screen, has bought the rights to Angela Davis: An Autobiography, originally published in 1974.

According to Variety, the as-yet-untitled project will be produced by Nina Yang Bongiovi, whose previous films include Dope and Fruitvale Station. Davis herself will exec-produce, while her Pulitzer prize-nominated niece, Elisa, will write the script.

Davis was a leader of the US Communist party in the 1960s. In 1969, she was dismissed from her role as acting assistant professor in the philosophy department at the University of California, Los Angeles when her political allegiances became known.

In 1970, she was charged with murder, kidnap and criminal conspiracy for her suspected involvement in a courtroom shootout. She was acquitted of all charges. She later returned to academia and wrote books on feminism and race.

The film is one of several projects that aim to redress the lack of biopics centred around women of colour.

Next year will see the release of Hidden Figures, which stars Taraji P Henson, Janelle Monáe and Octavia Spencer as a team of women who helped launch Nasa’s early space missions, while Oprah Winfrey is set to star in an HBO movie entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, about a woman whose cells became instrumental in medical research.