Oprah May Star in Ruined

Although OWN launch is less than one month away, sources report that HBO and Winfrey’s Harpo Productions are turning their focus on a TV adaptation of the 2009 play “Ruined,” with Oprah Winfrey possibly playing the lead role.

This was following Winfrey and Forte’s moving the company from ABC to HBO. HBO is reportedly developing this project as a possible TV movie starring channel for Winfrey.

“Ruined” which premiered at the Goodman Threatre, is the story of Mama Nadi, a brothel owner in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo who needs to tend to her employees during the troubling era between the rebel armies and the government. The play grabbed the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama for its writer Lynn Nottage, as well as the Drama Desk Awards during an off-broadway run in 2009.

Winfrey reportedly saw the show in its subsequent screening at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Nottage is already taken on board to write the screen adaptation of the play, while Winfrey is co-executive producer.

The voice behind “The Princess and the Frog” and guest star on “30 Rock,” Winfrey has not acted in an onscreen starring role since the Johnathan Demme adaptation of “Beloved” by Toni Morrison for the big screen in 1998. However, in October this year, she did sign a deal for an untitled comedy with Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock. Sex and the City director Michael Patrick King holds the feature comedy.

Another project in the making is a 7-hour miniseries adaptation of “America: In the King Years.”