Queen Latifah may have a new small-screen role in the works. Deadline reports that she has been cast in Lee Daniels’s untitled new Fox pilot, which will center on the story of a girl group trying to make it in Atlanta’s music scene.
Latifah will play Carlotta, the owner of a beauty salon (a setting she’s previously encountered through her work in the Barbershop franchise) who serves as the group’s reluctant mentor.
Although the new pilot could easily spawn from Empire, the network has made it clear that this is not a spin-off. “The possibility of a crossover at some point exists but it’s definitely not what we’re planning right now,” said Fox chairman and CEO Dana Walden, “It’s a modern day music business in Atlanta, and Empire is modern day music business in New York. It’s not inconceivable that the two worlds could cross. But that’s definitely not Lee’s intention as we go into it.”
In recent months, Latifah nabbed a role as the lead in HBO’s Bessie Smith biopic and then with the title role of NBC’s recent live production of The Wiz,
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