Barry Jenkins
Director Barry Jenkins, whose movie “Moonlight” won this year’s best picture Oscar, is writing and directing a drama for Amazon based on a prize-winning novel about escaping from slavery.
“The Underground Railroad” will be adapted from the book of the same name by novelist Colson Whitehead. The novel has sold over 825,000 copies and won a National Book Award, one of America’s most prestigious literary prizes.
Inspired by the historic secret network of routes that allowed slaves to reach freedom in the North in the 18th century, the novel tells the story of young African American Cora’s escape from a Georgia plantation.
Read Also:
She finds not a metaphorical but an actual railroad in operation beneath Southern soil.
Jenkins, 37, said he was excited to be working with such rich literary material.
“Colson’s writing has always defied convention, and ‘The Underground Railroad’ is no different,” the director said in a statement Monday.
“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,” Jenkins said, praising “the sweep and grandeur” of the novel’s narrative.
Amazon, which is developing the series, has not given a release date for the drama, which is slated for production by the firms Pastel and Plan B, a company owned by Hollywood star Brad Pitt.
Source: G Entertainment
