Los Angeles:
Precious director Lee Daniels is all set to develop the big screen adaptation of Nilo Cruz and Steinberg's Pulitzer-winning Broadway play.
Daniels has been roped in to direct Anna in the Tropics, to be produced by John Torres Martinez and Joe Lamy of Austin-based Mankind Entertainment.
The film's story is set in 1920s Tampa, then the seat of cigar-making industry and featured an imported Cuban tradition of lectors reading to workers. Inspired by Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Tropics centers on a family of cigar rollers whose lives are changed by the power of literature, the Hollywood Reporter said.
The play became a huge success and was nominated for two Tonys and has been translated and produced in various countries.
Daniels will develop the script with the Cuban-born Cruz while he also works on his civil rights project Selma. "I always saw it as a film. Even though I wrote is as a play, I just think it has endless possibilities as a film.
The play itself is full of images and I want to open it up to the world film offers," the Cuban author said.
Cruz and Daniels will meet in January to begin work on the project. Cruz already seems a fan of Daniels Precious which was about a child, abused by her parents.
"I loved his use of fantasy and quotidian life in Precious. It was a wonderful combination. I think my piece also deals with similar level of reality," says Cruz.
Daniels has been roped in to direct Anna in the Tropics, to be produced by John Torres Martinez and Joe Lamy of Austin-based Mankind Entertainment.
The film's story is set in 1920s Tampa, then the seat of cigar-making industry and featured an imported Cuban tradition of lectors reading to workers. Inspired by Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Tropics centers on a family of cigar rollers whose lives are changed by the power of literature, the Hollywood Reporter said.
The play became a huge success and was nominated for two Tonys and has been translated and produced in various countries.
Daniels will develop the script with the Cuban-born Cruz while he also works on his civil rights project Selma. "I always saw it as a film. Even though I wrote is as a play, I just think it has endless possibilities as a film.
The play itself is full of images and I want to open it up to the world film offers," the Cuban author said.
Cruz and Daniels will meet in January to begin work on the project. Cruz already seems a fan of Daniels Precious which was about a child, abused by her parents.
"I loved his use of fantasy and quotidian life in Precious. It was a wonderful combination. I think my piece also deals with similar level of reality," says Cruz.
