Viola Davis May Be Cast as The HELP’s Aibieleen

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Dreamworks, the company that routinely competes with Disney Pixar animated films, plans to release a movie version of the novel The Help by Kathryn Sockett and is in contract negotiations with Viola Davis, according to Variety. Viola Davis performed in the recent movies such as Doubt (For which she was nominated for an oscar), Law Abiding Citizen, and the Showtime series The United States of Tara. She has also appeared on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

The Help from Kathryn Sockett’s novel (Check out The Help Book Review), on which the movie is based, is about a writer who decides to interview a maid working for a Southern family. The interview itself breaks one of the unwritten rules of the pre-civil rights era South. The issues surrounding the film and the maid become more complicated as the servant interviewed speaks openly and reveals some of the more controversial details of her employer. The novel takes place before the start of the civil rights movie.

If the contract negotiations conclude successfully, Viola Davis will land the part of Aibieleen, the maid in the novel. Emma Stone is rumored to be cast as the writer who conducts the interview. Dreamworks has not yet announced the other members of The Help’s cast.