New Line’s Misty Copeland biopic, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, has found its director in Nzingha Stewart.
The feature project adapts Copeland’s best-selling memoir of the same name from the star dancer who became the first African-American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre.
The movie will chronicle Copeland’s rise from her poor and tumultuous beginnings — she only began ballet at the late age of 13 and found herself in the middle of a custodial struggle between her mother and the ballet teachers who were her legal guardians at the time — to becoming a crossover star that has written books, appeared in movies and commercials, and has become a speaker.
“As an African-American woman, I know firsthand that when Misty Copeland leaps, we all soar,” said Stewart in a statement. “As a filmmaker, I am thrilled to bring this hopeful, triumphant and cinematic story to the big screen.”
Stewart is a prolific television director and has worked on shows ranging from How to Get Away With Murder and Scandal to Grey’s Anatomy and A Million Little Things. She was also an exec producer on Tyler Perry’s drama For Colored Girls. She is currently filming her feature directorial debut with Tall Girl, a coming-of-age story for Netflix.
Michelle Rosenfarb is penning the screenplay for Life in Motion, which is being produced by Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot of Offspring Entertainment, as well as Philip Sandhaus.
Stewart is repped by Paradigm, Management 360 and The Nord Group.
