‘Color Purple’ Director Blitz Bazawule Reunites With Warner Bros As Studio Lands ‘Black Samurai’ Package Following Bidding War

Warner Bros is getting back in business with The Color Purple director Blitz Bazawule, with the studio landing rights to the tentatively titled Black Samurai with Bazawule directing. He wrote the pic on spec and will also produce under his Inward Gaze banner.

Courtesy of Mackenzie Stroh

After impressing the industry with his 2018 debut “The Burial of Kojo,” helming episodes of Ava DuVernay’s “Cherish the Day” and working with Beyoncé on her feature-length visual album “Black Is King,” Bazawule made his major studio debut with 2023’s “The Color Purple.”

The story will follow Yasuke, an African warrior who served under Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga during the Sengoku period of samurai conflict in 16th century Japan. Sources tell Deadline four studios were in the mix for the project, but ultimately Warners came in with best offer on top of the relationship that began following his work on the recent musical adaptation of The Color Purple.

Sources tell Variety that Warner Bros. beat out three other studios and streamers’ bids on the script, tentatively titled “Black Samurai,” which Bazawule wrote on spec and will direct and produce under his Inward Gaze banner.