Janelle Monae’s making her way deep into Hollywood!
The “Electric Lady” has been cast as the third lead alongside Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer in the upcoming drama “Hidden Figures,” a space drama which will also co-star Kevin Costner.
The film is based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s upcoming book “Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race.” The movie follows three African-American women who served as the brains behind NASA’s Friendship 7 mission, which saw astronaut John Glenn become the first American to orbit the Earth in February 1962.
IMdb reads:
“As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as “human computers”, we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history’s greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return. Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.”
Monae will play Mary Jackson, the youngest of the three women, Henson will play Katherine Johnson, and Spencer will play Dorothy Vaughan. Costner will co-star as the head of the space program.
The film is slated to release in 2017.
