Alicia Keys To Make Film Debut In Halle Berry-Produced Movie

LAUNCH Radio Networks

Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys will try her hand at acting in a new movie about piano prodigy Philippa Schuyler. The Associated Press reports that the film will be produced by Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry, who own the rights to the biopic, and Marc Platt, who produced the Tony-nominated Broadway show Wicked.

The as-yet-unnamed movie will chronicle the life of Schuyler, who was the only child of George Schuyler, a black journalist and author, and Josephine Cogdell, a white artist and writer.

Philippa Schuyler was born in 1939 and became a child prodigy who played the piano at Carnegie Hall and around the world. She was extremely talented, but battled racism, which curtailed her achievements. She eventually became a journalist and was killed in 1967 in a plane crash in Vietnam.

Keys will have some personal experience to draw from for the role–she is a classically-trained pianist and is also biracial. Like Schuyler, her mother is white and her father is black.

In related news, Keys was in Rome, Italy on Sunday (May 16), to perform at Quincy Jones’ We Are The Future concert. The fundraiser also featured appearances by Natalie Cole, Lionel Richie, Muhammad Ali, Angelina Jolie, LL Cool J, Cirque du Soleil, Josh Groban, Youssou N’Dour, Oprah Winfrey and Ben Taylor.