Fantasia to Star in Mahalia Jackson Biopic

After holding it down on Broadway in The Color Purple, Fantasia is ready to hit the big screen. The “American Idol” winner is set to star as Mahalia Jackson in a biopic adapted from the 1993 book Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel, where she will play the late gospel singer.

Tasia, who previously played herself in the 2006 Lifetime film Life Is Not a Fairy Tale: The Fantasia Barrino Story, will channel Jackson in the Euzhan Palcy-directed film written by Jim Evering, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In the flick, she will portray Jackson as she grows up in a poverty-stricken New Orleans and later gets involved in the Civil Rights Movement as an early supporter of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The as-yet-untitled film will commence production in April in Pittsburgh and Chicago and is slated for a December release.

Fantasia may be filling the shoes of another famous songstress. Aretha Franklin recently told CNN that she is considering the 26-year-old and her fellow “Idol” alum Jennifer Hudson to play her in a biopic.