The news of FX’s adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Kindred broke earlier this year. Since then, we’ve been waiting to learn more about the show’s development. Now, Deadline reports that the adaptation has brought on a director and executive producer, as well as a series lead.
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Newcomer and recent Juilliard grad Mallori Johnson has been cast as the series lead, Dana Franklin.
Dana is a young Black woman living in 1976. She's recently moved to a new home with her white husband, but soon finds herself transported in time to an 1815 plantation.
Dana is able to travel through time, but she can’t control where she goes, when she arrives, or how long she’s there for. Dana soon comes to realize that in order to guarantee her future, she must reckon with a disturbing past.
Janicza Bravo is set to direct the series. Known for previous work on Zola, Lemon, Atlanta, Dear White People, and In Treatment, Bravo is a longtime fan of the book. According to Deadline, Branden Jacob-Jenkins has written the pilot, and will executive-produce alongside Bravo. Production is scheduled to start in September.
Bravo told Deadline,
I first read Kindred 20 years ago [...] I was in college. I hadn’t ever seen myself in a world like that. And certainly not at its center. What might seem like only a portrait of an invisible woman is also a potent embrace of our relationship to history and how it can bring us closer to our future. After what felt like losing over a year of the life I had come to know so well, an opportunity to direct an adaptation of this specific text was a win. On top of that getting to partner with Branden is something I’d been wanting for quite some time.
This is the latest of several Octavia Butler adaptations in development.
Can't wait for the adaptation? Download Kindred today!
[Via Deadline]
