ABC Begins Production on Adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry Play

BURBANK, December 13: Lorraine Hansberry’s acclaimed play A
Raisin in the Sun, which first premiered in
1959 and was most recently seen on Broadway in 2004, is being adapted into a
three-hour TV movie for ABC.

The film will feature the 2004 play’s original cast members,
including Sean Combs as Walter Lee, Jr., alongside Emmy and Tony Award winner
Phylicia Rashad, four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, Tony Award nominee
Sanaa Lathan and ER star John Stamos.

A Raisin in the Sun
will air during the 2007 season on ABC. It tells the story of a struggling family
on Chicago's South Side in the 1950s. It was the first play written by an
African American woman to be produced on Broadway. It premiered in 1959 with a
cast that included Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ruby Dee and
Louis Gossett Jr. A Columbia Pictures feature version with the same cast
followed in 1961.

The ABC movie will be produced by Craig Zadan and Neil
Meron's Storyline Entertainment, Sean Combs' Bad Boy World Wide Entertainment
Group and Sony Pictures Television. Zadan and Meron executive-produced Chicago and Life with Judy Garland, among others.