Oprah Returns to Purple

Television, publishing, politics ... Oprah Winfrey appears on the brink of taking over the world. To all her other titles, you can now add movie musical producer. Reportedly, the big O let it slip the other day that she wants to turn the Broadway stage version of her own film debut, The Color Purple, back into a movie.

Oprah famously came to the rescue of the tuner back in its pre-Broadway days when she come aboard as a producer; thus the title is officially Oprah Winfrey Presents The Color Purple (I bet Alice Walker was thrilled with that). No further details at this time on another movie, but that won't stop us from contemplating the next actresses to fill the roles played by Oscar nominees Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery and Oprah herself in the original Steven Spielberg film.

It doesn't take much to connect the dots through three obvious choices: as Celie, American Idol's Fantasia Barrino is a frontrunner simply because she is currently playing the role onstage already (through next month, at least). From there, Idol's most successful alum, Jennifer Hudson, is a good fit for Sophia (Oprah's role), while her Dreamgirls co-star Anika Noni Rose is a natural as Sug Avery (but Oprah, please; no Beyoncé). Sure, they're all a tad on the young side, but remember that we could be waiting awhile for this to all happen.

Click here to buy The Color Purplemovie on DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via BroadwayWorld.com and Imdb.com.