Madonna to direct ballerina Michaela DePrince’s memoir ‘Taking Flight’

Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures (MGM) announced that Madonna’s next film directing project will be titled Taking Flight.

It is based on Michaela DePrince and her adoptive mother’s Elaine DePrince’s memoir Taking Flight: From War Orphan To Star Ballerina.

It will detail world famous ballerina DePrince’s start as an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone who is adopted and taken to America, before becoming a professional dancer at the age of 17 in the Joburg Ballet in South Africa.

She appeared in Beyonce’s 2016 cultural phenomenon Lemonade and is currently a soloist at the Dutch National Ballet.

“Michaela’s journey resonated with me deeply as both an artist and an activist who understands adversity,” Madonna said.

“We have a unique opportunity to shed light on Sierra Leone and let Michaela be the voice for all the orphaned children she grew up beside. I am honored to bring her story to life.”

MGM president Jonathan Glickman added, “We could not be more thrilled that Madonna will bring this remarkable story to the big screen.

“There is no director better suited to tell Michaela’s journey with passion and sensitivity, and we cannot wait to bring this film to audiences all around the world.”

The DePrince book will be adapted for the screen by Camilla Blackett known for television shows Fresh Off The Boat and New Girl.

The ‘Material Girl’ singer’s first directing job was in 2008, with Filth And Wisdom, a limited release comedy through her production company Semtex Films.

Co-written with Dan Cadan, it was based in London and centered on Ukrainian immigrant A.K. who funds his rock star aspirations by moonlighting as a cross-dressing dominatrix, and his two female flatmates

She followed it up with 2011’s W.E., another commercial bomb, which she co-wrote with her documentary collaborator Alek Keshishian, about a lonely New York housewife obsessed  by the relationship 70 years earlier between British King Edward VIII and American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Her upcoming projects include co-writing and directing Loved, a film adaptation of Andrew Sean Greer’s novel, The Impossible Lives Of Greta Wells.

It’s about a woman who descends into depression after the death of her gay twin brother, and whose radical psychiatric treatment to combat it sends her to another time.

“It touches on a lot of really important topics I’ve always been invested in or championed – fighting for women’s rights, gay rights, civil rights, always fighting for the underdog,” said Madonna in Harper’s Bizarre.

“Why does this book appeal to me? Why did I want to adapt it into a screenplay?

“Because it touches me on so many levels and it deals with so many important topics. Right now, more than ever, it’s an extremely timely story to tell.”

Madonna produced and wrote I Am Because We Are, a documentary looking into the lives of Malawi’s over one million orphans in the wake of the AIDS pandemic.