Alvin Ailey biopic in the works at Fox Searchlight; Alicia Keys to produce

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A biopic of legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey is in the works at Fox Searchlight with multi-Grammy winner Alicia Keys on board as a producer. This story was first reported by Deadline.

Alvin Ailey is known for popularizing modern dance as well as bringing African and African-American dance into the mainstream of dance vernacular and remains one of the most influential choreographers of all time. He founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City in 1958 after his time at the Horton Dance Company.

The film will be partially based on the Jennifer Dunning biography Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance. The Ailey organization owns all of the rights to Ailey’s choreography and the studio plans to collaborate with his dance company’s Artistic Director Robert Battle and Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison on the project.

Grammy winner Alicia Keys is on board as a producer alongside Judy Kinberg and Susan Lewis of AK Worldwide, as well as Rachel Cohen and Jana Edelbaum of iDeal Partners.

He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1988. In 2014, President Barack Obama selected Ailey to be a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Ailey died on December 1, 1989, National AIDS Day, at the age of 58.