Actor Terrence Howard (“Empire,” “Iron Man”) has reversed his decision to retire from acting and is set to star alongside Evan Ross in “Delta Blues,” a one-hour drama series about the Mississippi blues at Zero Gravity Management (“Ozark”).
Howard has signed on for the pilot based on true events that chronicles the story of W.C. Handy, sometimes referred to as the Father of the Blues. Starting in 1903, Handy led one of the most famous minstrel show troupes and would soon discover a new African-American folk music echoing across the cotton fields, prisons and watering holes of the Mississippi Delta.
When a black Masonic group, the Knights of Pythias, asks him to lead its brass band, Handy quits the Minstrels and moves to the Delta. Classically trained Handy begins to document, perform and publish the music that would become known as the blues – in effect making old materials new and seemingly his own. He settles in New York and eventually builds a copyrighting and publishing empire – but at a cost.
Neither Howard nor Ross will play Handy. Howard will also make his directorial debut on the project which is currently out to showrunners.
Source: Deadline
