This is not your mother’s “Steel Magnolias.”
All of the lead actors in Lifetime’s modern-day remake — Queen Latifah, Phylicia Rashad, Alfre Woodard and Jill Scott — are black.
“Surprisingly, Lifetime has a huge African-American audience,” producer Neil Meron tells The Post. “They want to honor that audience and give them more.”
The idea, Meron says, came straight from Robert Harling, who wrote the original play and the Oscar-nominated 1989 movie.
“There was a production of it done on stage that he saw, and he couldn’t believe it was his play,” producer Craig Zadan says. “It was so new and fresh that he thought [an all-black] movie would be incredible.”
“But, obviously, when you have a white cast and an African-American cast, they are different types of movies.”
The reboot, which premieres this fall, is set in 2012 Louisiana— and again follows the friendships of six women whose lives often intersect at the neighborhood beauty salon.
“It’s a classic story with classic characters,” Woodard insists. “It’s not like we’re turning it into ‘Big Momma’s House!’ ”
Woodard, 59, takes over the role of Ouiser, a cynical, hardened southerner made famous on screen by Shirley MacLaine.
“I really enjoy being bitchy!” the four-time Emmy winner says. “It’s fun. You have to behave all your life. But it is always fun to get to act like a person who is not accommodating at all.”
The new “Steel Magnolias” — which completed filming last month outside Atlanta — was adapted for television from the original play.
“We kept the plot and the characters and the great dialogue,” Zadan says.
“There are also new scenes that were not in the original movie.”
And pop-culture references — including a shout out to Facebook.
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article courtesy of NewYorkPost.com
