The Soul Train is headed down the track to movie theaters

Scene from the original Soul Train
Scene from the original Soul Train

Variety reports that Warner Brothers has contracted Malcolm Spellman (Dead Presidents) to write a feature film based on the classic music TV show Soul Train. Darryl Porter and Aaron Geller will produce the movie with the show’s original host and producer Don Cornelius. The original series was one of the longest running music variety shows on television, running from 1971 until 2006.

The movie will be set in the 1980s, and follow a young dancer named Protag, who comes from a tough section of Los Angeles and is looking to get out with his gift for “pop-locking”. Cornelius told Spellman that he’d always wanted to mount a tour with music bands and dancers, so the writer will make that fictional tour a centerpiece of the coming film.

According to a New York Times article, in May of 2008, MadVision Entertainment and Intermedia Partners acquired the Soul Train franchise from Don Cornelius.