Hollywood actress Angela Bassett has joined the cast of the Lifetime movie, Betty And Coretta.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
Bassett will play King opposite Mary J. Blige, who co-stars as Shabazz in the effort previously known as Parallel Lives. Ruby Dee will appear onscreen as a historical witness to narrate the duo’s story as someone familiar with the events of both their lives. Betty and Coretta remains a working title for the project.
Betty And Coretta centers on the relationship between Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King. With the story emphasizing how they carried on as single mothers following the assassinations of their husbands, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Bassett already got her swing at playing Shabazz, she played the civil rights leader’s wife in the 1992 Spike Lee film Malcolm X, which starred Denzel Washington as the lead.
Yves Simoneau will direct, with Blige, Jaja Johnson, Larry Sanitsky, and Polly Anthony on board to executive produce. The script was written by Shem Bitterman and Ron Hutchinson.
