Adrian Taylor to Executive Produce Mahalia Jackson

Adrian Taylor to Executive Produce Mahalia Jackson Movie starring Fantasia.

A movie about the life of songtress Mahalia Jackson entitled Mahalia is in the works. Adrian Taylor is Executive Producer. Taylor is responsible for the financing and distribution. Talks continue with a division of Sony Pictures for North America righs. Special marketing will follow the same plan as The movie The Passion of the Christ.

Adrian Taylor was the first Black American to work as a TV News reporter at KFVS TV. He worked

there from 1979 -1980. Taylor also worked as a Midnight to six disc jockey at KGMO FM Radio. Taylor graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1983. Taylor has a law degree from Antioch University located Yellow Springs Ohio.

His son Adrian Taylor Jr is the Pastor of Lighthouse Breakthrough International Ministries in Cape Girardeau.

The film budget is 23.9mil.

Taylor has represented film legend Marty Bregman producer of Scarface, Carlito's Way starring Al Pacino and The Bone Collector starring Denzel Washington.

Fantasia Barrino is set to play the lead of Mahalia. Fantasia is the winner of American Idol season 3. She's a Grammy Award winning singer. She was the star of the Oprah Winfrey Produced Broadway musical The Color Purple. Fantasia will bring a substantial young fan base to the film. Fantasia also has the distinction of starring in the #1 (number one) film, "The Fantasia Bariino Story: Life Is Not a Fairytale, on the Lifetime Network. It is based on her life story. Fantasia will earn a share of the gross sales.

Euzhan Palcy (Dry White Season) (Sugar Cane Alley) winner of seventeen international film awards is set to direct. Ms. Palcy was honored with a recent ten-day very successful retrospective of her films in May, by the New Museum of modern Art.

Mahalia! is based on the 1993 ASCAP Award winning book Got To Tell It: MAHALIA JACKSON, Queen of Gospel by Jules Schwerin and has been endorsed by the Estate of Mahalia Jackson. The screenplay was written Jim Evering. Dave Simeon will produce.

The producers of the film have been invited to premier the movie at next years prestigious Canne Film Festival in France. The New York Met has offered a special premiere in New York for 2012 that will include a star studded reception.

Mahalia Jackson recorded 30 albums in her lifetime. She grew up in New Orleans,Louisiana. Given the name the Queen of gospel In 1950 she became the first Black Gospel singer to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall. She has been dubbed the greatest singer of all time by many. It is estimated that Mahalia Jackson sold over 80 million records. Thomas A Dorsey wrote Mahalia's signature song...Precious Lord take my hand.

In Her adult life her home remained in Chicago. She had invested in a beauty shop Florist shop along with other investments.

Mahalia Jackson is known for discovering Della Reese and acting as a mentor for a young Aretha Franklin. She established the Mahalia Jackson Scholarship Foundation for young people who wanted to attend college.

Mahalia Jackson top recordings

* What Child Is This"

* "How I Got Over"

* "Trouble of the World"

* "Silent Night"

* "Go Tell It on the Mountain"

* "Amazing Grace", (Apollo 194, 1947)

* "Move On Up A Little Higher", (Apollo 164, 1947)

* "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" (performed this song at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral)

* "Remember Me"

* "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho"

* "Holding My Saviour's Hands"

* "Roll Jordan, Roll"

* "The Upper Room"

* "We Shall Overcome"

* "I'm on My Way to Canaan"

* "You'll Never Walk Alone"

* "His Eye is on the Sparrow"

* "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"

* "Didn't it Rain"

* "Wait Till My Change Comes", (Apollo 110, 1946)

* "He Knows My Heart", (Apollo 145, 1946)

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences created the Gospel Music or Other Religious Recording category for Jackson making her the first Gospel Music Artist to win the prestigious Grammy Award.

Mahalia Jackson died of natural causes in Chicago in 1972 at the age of 60.