Cynthia Erivo kicked off the week at Sunday’s Oscars, where she was up for two awards and performed, and now word comes that the “Harriet” breakout is set to topline another pic — and make her producing debut. Amblin Partners has snagged film rights to “Carrier,” a podcast created by audio studio QCode and Dan Blank. Erivo will reprise her podcast role on the big screen and is among the project’s producers. Deadline broke the news.
Written and directed by Blank, “Carrier” sees Erivo playing Raylene, “a truck driver who accepts an off-the-books long hall trucking assignment to cover for her ill father. She soon realizes that her mysterious cargo is a threat to the world and various forces begin targeting her to control or destroy it,” the source hints.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to be able to bring this podcast to the screen and marks the beginning of a new adventure in creativity for me as a producer,” said Erivo.
Erivo didn’t reach EGOT status at Sunday’s Oscars, but the Tony, Grammy, and Daytime Emmy winner has got plenty of time to achieve that milestone. The Broadway star received two Oscar nods for “Harriet,” her first leading role in a film: Best Actress and Best Original Song.
“Widows,” “Bad Times at the El Royale,” and “Broad City” are among Erivo’s other screen credits. Her upcoming film slate includes dystopian sci-fi “Chaos Walking” and time-travel story “Needle in a Timestack.” On the small screen, she’s set to play Aretha Franklin in National Geographic’s “Genius,” and can currently be seen in HBO miniseries “The Outsider,” a crime drama based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.
Erivo was the sole person of color up for an acting honor at this year’s Oscars, a distinction she spoke out about. Erivo described her nomination as “a moment for celebration, but it also is a real eye-opener.” She explained, “It can’t just be me alone. There’s just such good work going on and this may sound fatalistic, but I would hate for people’s work to have gone by and then for us to have looked back and go, ‘Oh, I wish we would’ve given roses,’ when people aren’t there to actually receive them. I don’t want us to do that.”
