Hudlin Entertainment

Sidney Poitier Documentary Produced by Oprah in the Works at Apple

Oprah Winfrey will executive produce and Reginald Hudlin will direct the film on the screen legend, which has been in the making for more than a year.

BY REBECCA KEEGAN

Sidney Poitier was a presenter at the 1967 Academy Awards. COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION

A documentary about Sidney Poitier is in the works at Apple with Oprah Winfrey executive producing and Reginald Hudlin directing, according to four sources with knowledge of the film.

The documentary, which has been under wraps and in production with the participation of the Poitier family for more than a year, is an Apple Original Films release from Winfrey’s Harpo Productions and Network Entertainment.

Poitier, who died Thursday at age 94 in Beverly Hills, was the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor for 1963’s Lilies of the Field and opened the door for other minority performers through his work in such films as In the Heat of the NightTo Sir With Love and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?.

Hudlin directed The Black Godfather, the 2019 documentary about music executive Clarence Avant for Netflix, and Marshall, the 2017 Thurgood Marshall biopic starring Chadwick Boseman for Open Road.

Hudlin is also executive producing two films for AppleTV+ called Number One on the Call Sheet, one about Black leading men in Hollywood, which he will direct, and one about Black leading women, directed by Shola Lynch.