“The 40-Year-Old Version,” Produced By Lena Waithe, Is Coming To Netflix

“The 40-Year-Old Version” is a film with the premise of a down-on-her-luck playwright who thinks the only way to get her life back on track is to become a rapper, at age 40, according to Yahoo. Directed by Radha Blank, the film received the Sundance Film Festival Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic section earlier this week.

Blank, who has written for the series “She’s Gotta Have It” (on which she was also a producer) and “Empire,” first began the project as a web series that culminated in a mixtape. However, the death of her mother derailed the series, and Blank later realized “The 40-Year-Old Version” needed a bigger canvas. “As a native New Yorker raised on cinema, I’ve been waiting my entire life to see someone who looks like me in the center of a classic New York film,” said Blank. “And now thanks to the amazing support of Jordan, Lena and the rest of the talented team of producers, I get to make my dream come true, adding ‘The 40-Year-Old Version,’ a love letter to my great hometown, to the canon of New York films.”

“The 40-Year-Old Version” will be in theaters and premiere on Netflix later this year.