Lee Daniels is teaming up again with Oprah Winfrey, and this time it’s to remake the iconic 1983 tear jerker, Terms of Endearment with a major plot twist.
The Empire creator’s film won’t be a carbon copy of the original. He has enlisted Oprah and Kerry Washingon to put an entirely new spin on the film which will include a storyline about the HIV/AIDS epidemic that ravaged the world during the 1980’s.
Winfrey has already been cast in the role that Shirley MacLaine made famous, so presumably, Kerry Washington will take on Debra Winger’s original role. Daniels told The Hollywood Reporter, “I’ve got to tell stories that are important to me, and so many African-American women died. I want to make Flap [played by Jeff Daniels in the 1983 film] gay and infect the Debra Winger character. And then we explore the ’80s in a different way.” This will be the second collaboration for Daniels and Winfrey who first worked together in 2013’s The Butler.
As an openly gay filmmaker, Daniels might be the right person to make this film. In the past, director Tyler Perry has come under fire for using HIV subplots in his films, For Colored Girls and Temptation to warn against promiscuity and homosexuality and they were met with a ton of backless from the LGBTQ community and those working to erase the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. Therefore, we sincerely hope that Daniels plot is well-researched and as thoroughly moving as the original film.
Terms of Endearment isn’t the only thing these mega stars have on their plates. Oprah Winfrey will star in the forthcoming HBO film, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Kerry Washington will be lending her voice to Cars 3 which will drop this summer, and Lee Daniels is currently working on a Richard Pryor biopic and an Empire spin-off which will be set in Las Vegas.
Are you excited about the Terms of Endearment reboot, or do you think Lee Daniels should leave this one alone?
