With the release of his much anticipated and critically-lauded second feature film, “Moonlight,” about a month away, Barry Jenkins is all set for what could be his next work – this time, a limited TV series based on celebrated author Colson Whitehead’s latest novel, “The Underground Railroad,” which was published on August 2, and saw immediate success thanks in part to Oprah Winfrey naming it her most recent Book Club pick, as well as critical praise from literary critics.
Jenkins is re-teaming with his “Moonlight” producers (Brad Pitt’s) Plan B, and Adele Romanski, to adapt Whitehead’s novel, which chronicles a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.
The novel’s official summary reads: Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom. Like the protagonist of Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time as well as space.
Oprah Winfrey, when she announced it as her latest Book Club selection, said: “Kept me up at night, had my heart in my throat, almost afraid to turn the next page. Get it, then get another copy for someone you know because you are definitely going to want to talk about it once you read that heart-stopping last page.”
The project isn’t set up at any network at this time.
Should it eventually get picked up as a series, it will join other Underground Railroad-related series either already airing, like WGN’s popular “Underground” series which returns for a second season next year; and those that have been announced and currently in development, from 2 films on Harriet Tubman, and NBC’s planned 8-hour miniseries “Freedom Run,” to name a few.
“Moonlight” made its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, was picked up by A24, and is set to open theatrically on October 21, en route to likely awards season contention.
Pick up a copy of Whitehead’s “Underground Railroad” on Amazon here.
The book, published just over a month ago, is on my to-read list, which is a mile high, so I likely won’t get to it for some time. But if you’ve already read it, do share your thoughts in the comment section below.
So, let the speculation begin; who should play Cora, the lead protagonist? I imagine this could be a career coup for an up-and-comer. Of course, a few things have to happen first between now and then.
Deadline was first to report the news of the project.
