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Octavia Spencer to play beauty pioneer in new Netflix series

By USA Today
By USA Today

BEVERLY HILLS, California – Netflix continued its aggressive rollout of new series, announcing Sunday a new drama starring Oscar winner Octavia Spencer.

She'll play a hair-care pioneer and mogul in "Madam C.J. Walker," an "irreverent" tale of overcoming "hostile turn-of-the-century America, epic rivalries, tumultuous marriages and some trifling family to become America’s first black, self-made female millionaire," Netflix said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

The eight-episode series is based on "On Her Own Ground," a book by A’Lelia Bundles portraying Walker (real name: Sarah Breedlove), and counts Spencer and LeBron James among its producers.

Spencer won an Academy Award for 2011's "The Help" and was nominated in each of the last two years for "Hidden Figures" and "The Shape of Water." Her last regular TV role was in Fox's "Red Band Society" in 2014-15 and she made recurring appearances on the CBS comedy  "Mom" from 2013-15.

Also due on Netflix: "White Lines,"  about a woman's investigation into the death of her brother, a legendary DJ, on the Spanish island of Ibiza. The series hails from Alex Pina ("La Casa de Papel") and the producing team for "The Crown."

Other news:

  • Netflix set a Sept. 21 release date for "Maniac," starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill as two strangers drawn into a pharmaceutical trial run by an inventor (Justin Theroux). (It doesn't go as planned.) Sally Field also stars in what original-programming chief Cindy Holland called a "thought-provoking fever dream" of a show directed by Cary Fukunaga ("True Detective").
  • "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," starring Kiernan Shipka ("Mad Men") in the dark origin story of the iconic teenage witch, will arrive Oct. 26, just in time for Halloween. It's from producer Greg Berlanti.

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