Oprah Winfrey has been involved in trying to get a film adaptation of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks made since the book was published in 2010. The film, an HBO Productions film, will start shooting this summer, and this week it was announced that Oprah will star.
Oprah will play Lacks’ daughter Deborah and the story is told from her perspective, as Deborah learns about her mother and how the harvesting of Henrietta’s cells led to many medical breakthroughs. Rebecca Skloot, author of the book, is co-executive producer, and three members of Lacks’ family are serving as consultants to the film. George C. Wolfe will direct. No release date is available, though sometime in 2017 would make sense for what will likely be a television release (it’s an HBO film, after all).
Pasco Phronesis 