'Moonlight' director Barry Jenkins' next project is about the Underground Railroad
Amazon Studios just landed Barry Jenkins' next big project.
The Moonlight director will write and direct a one-hour original limited drama, The Underground Railroad, for the streaming service.
The drama will be adapted from Colson Whitehead's novel -- a recent MashRead Choice -- of the same name.
The book follows a girl named Cora as she escapes a Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad.
“Going back to The Intuitionist, Colson’s writing has always defied convention, and The Underground Railroad is no different,” Jenkins said in a statement. “It’s a groundbreaking work that pays respect to our nation’s history while using the form to explore it in a thoughtful and original way. Preserving the sweep and grandeur of a story like this requires bold, innovative thinking and in Amazon we’ve found a partner whose reverence for storytelling and freeness of form is wholly in line with our vision.”
The novel, which debuted in August 2016, has received much praise, and received a Kirkus Prize nomination and a National Book Award nomination.
"I wrote [The Underground Railroad] in 2015, had the idea originally in 2000, but took inspiration and ideas from things I encountered over 30 years," Whitehead told Mashable in October.
The Amazon series is slated to be executive produced by Pastel (founded by Jenkins, Adele Romanski and Sara Murphy) and Brad Pitt’s Plan B.
Saba was a Los Angeles-based reporter who covers all things digital entertainment, including YouTube, streaming services and digital influencers. Prior to that, she spent two years at the Los Angeles Times covering entertainment for the Calendar and Company Town sections. Saba grew up in Santa Monica and graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in journalism and B.A. in political science. When not reporting, she is usually binge watching shows online or looking for new coffee shops to frequent.
