John Legend joins Cynthia Erivo in Bill Condon’s South African music drama The Road Home

John Legend has joined the cast of The Road Home, with the EGOT-winning singer and songwriter set to portray legendary performer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte in Bill Condon’s upcoming historical drama.

Currently filming in South Africa, the feature stars Thabo Rametsi as jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela alongside Cynthia Erivo as fellow anti-apartheid campaigner and singer Miriam Makeba. Guy Pearce plays Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, while Johnny Flynn takes on the role of Paul Simon.

Directed by the Oscar-winning Condon (Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters) from a screenplay by Michael Bronner, The Road Home centres on the cultural boycott of apartheid-era South Africa following the release of Simon’s landmark Graceland album. As tensions mount, Masekela and Makeba seek to amplify South African voices through music while navigating political divisions within the anti-apartheid movement.

The film brings together an ensemble of musicians, activists and political figures whose lives intersected during one of the defining cultural debates of the 1980s, placing music at the heart of its account of resistance to apartheid.

The editorial unit

The Road Home does not have a release date yet.