Ava DuVernay continues to take on projects at an insane rate. Today, Deadline reported that the director will helm HBO Films’ upcoming project Battle of Versailles, about a landmark 1973 fashion show in which five unknown American designers defeated the five best French designers, setting the stage for American fashion’s rise in prestige and breaking down racial barriers in the industry—10 of the 30 American models at the show were black, an unprecedented move at the time. The Americans’ show wowed the social elites in attendance with its high energy and minimalist design, packing a much more powerful punch than the French team’s extravagant show set to classical music.
DuVernay is co-writing the film with Michael Starrbury, adapting it from journalist Robin Givhan’s 2015 book The Battle Of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled Into The Spotlight And Made History. She’ll also serve as one of its executive producers.
This is just the latest in what has been a tremendously busy 2016 for DuVernay. She’s signed on with Disney to direct an adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time, will work with Lupita Nyong’o on a sci-fi thriller, and helped lead a fundraiser in Flint, Michigan on the night of the Academy Awards that raised $145,000 to alleviate the city’s water crisis.