‘How to Get Away with Murder’ Star Viola Davis to Portray Harriet Tubman in HBO Movie

Viola Davis is working with HBO to develop and star in a film about Harriet Tubman, the American hero responsible for helping hundreds of slaves escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad.

The movie is currently untitled, but is based on historian Kate Clifford Larson’s book Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero. Tubman, who was born into slavery but died a free woman, is responsible for helping to free more than 300 slaves through the use of her series of secret hideouts and safe-houses, which we know as the Underground Railroad.

Davis is currently working to develop the HBO movie with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV, writer Kirk Ellis (John Adams) and producer Doug Ellin (Entourage). Variety is reporting that the film “is in the early development stage and has not been given the go-ahead for production.”

The actress has kept busy lately, from her current job as hot mess Annalise Keating on the hit ABC series How to Get Away with Murder to her upcoming gig as woman-in-charge Amanda Waller in Warner Bros film adaptation of Suicide Squad (bonus glimpse of Jared Leto as the Joker if you click here). If the Harriet Tubman film moves forward, HBO is looking at filming the next time Davis is on hiatus from HTGAWM.

Let us know your thoughts on the actress  portraying the famous abolitionist in the comments below.

Photo Credit: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

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