Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman to star in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'

June 20 (UPI) -- Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman will star in the new movie Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Variety confirmed Wednesday the 53-year-old actress and 41-year-old actor have joined a Netflix adaptation of the August Wilson play.

George C. Wolfe will direct from a script by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, with Denzel Washington, Todd Black and Dany Wolf as producers. Oscar winner Ann Roth will serve as costume designer, with Branford Marsalis as composer.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom centers on Ma Rainey, a real-life blues singer known as the "Mother of the Blues." The story takes place in 1927 as Rainey records in Chicago amid racial and interpersonal tensions.

Netflix confirmed Davis and Boseman's casting in a tweet Wednesday.

"We're thrilled to announce Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, starring Viola Davis & Chadwick Boseman, begins filming next month! The Denzel Washington-produced, George C. Wolfe-directed adaptation of August Wilson's award-winning play follows the woman dubbed the 'Mother of the Blues,'" the post reads.

Deadline said the film will begin production in Pittsburgh, Pa., in July. Davis and Washington previously collaborated with Wilson on the 2010 Broadway revival of his play Fences and the 2016 movie adaptation.

Davis plays Annalise Keating on the ABC series How to Get Away with Murder, which was renewed for a sixth season in May. Boseman portrays Black Panther in Avengers: Endgame and other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.