EXCLUSIVE: In one of many greatest star energy packages to hit the TV market in awhile, Emmy winner Sterling Okay. Brown, Oscar winner Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph and Black Panther‘s Winston Duke are in negotiations to guide a restricted sequence primarily based on Percival Everett’s acclaimed 2022 novel The Timber. Marcus Gardley (The Chi) is writing the variation, which has sparked a bidding struggle, sources inform Deadline.
Gardley is govt producing alongside Brown and Abby Victor for Indian Meadows, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and Katie Zucker by way of Mad Huge Leisure and Everett. UCP, a division of Common Studio Group, the place Hinds and his Mad Huge Leisure are underneath an total deal, is the studio.
Everett’s The Timber is a fast-paced thriller that tackles racism and police violence. It opens with a sequence of brutal murders within the rural city of Cash, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet anticipated resistance from the native sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders current a puzzle, for at every crime scene there’s a second lifeless physique: that of a person who resembles Emmett Until.
The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, however quickly uncover that eerily related murders are happening all around the nation. Because the our bodies pile up, the MBI detectives search solutions from a neighborhood root physician who has been documenting each lynching within the nation for years, uncovering a historical past that refuses to be buried.
The roles haven’t been confirmed however Sterling and Duke are believed to be enjoying the detectives.
Marcus Gardley and Selwyn Seyfu Hinds
Courtesy
The Timber reunite Brown and Hinds following their current collaboration on Washington Black. Hinds is creator, showrunner and govt producer and Brown star and govt producer of the restricted sequence, an adaptation of Esi Edugyan’s novel of the identical title, which debuted on Hulu final week.
Brown, an Oscar nominee for American Fiction, is a three-time Emmy winner, together with for his roles in American Crime Story: The Individuals v. O.J. Simpson and This Is Us. He is a double nominee this yr for his new sequence with This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman, Hulu’s Paradise, which he headlines and govt produces — for Excellent Lead Actor In a Drama Collection and Excellent Drama Collection. That brings his Emmy nomination complete to 11. Brown is repped by Jennifer Wiley-Moxley of JWM Leisure Group, CAA and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
An Oscar winner for The Holdovers, Randolph can also be recognized for starring reverse Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Title and for her Emmy-nominated function on Hulu’s Solely Murders Within the Constructing. Her upcoming films embody Eternity and The Gallerist. She is represented by CAA and Fox Rothschild.
Duke rose to stardom along with his MCU function as M’Baku, which he originated in Black Panther and has reprised in Black Panther: Wakanda Ceaselessly, Avengers: Infinity Conflict, Avengers: Endgame and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Different outstanding movie credit embody The Fall Man, Jordan Peele’s Us, Netflix’s Spencer Confidential in addition to Sony Image Classics’ 9 Days, which he headlined and govt produced. Duke is repped by CAA, M88 and legal professional John Meigs.
Everett’s The Timber was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and received the 2022 Anisfield-Wolf E book Award, amongst different accolades. Everett is repped by CAA and Melanie Jackson Company.
Gardley co-wrote the 2023 characteristic adaptation of The Shade Purple. His sequence credit additionally embody NOS4A2, Maid and Basis. He’s repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer.
Hinds served as a author/producer on Jordan Peele’s reboot of The Twilight Zone. He has a number of movies in growth, together with Prince Of Cats, an adaptation of Ronald Wimberly’s graphic novel, at Legendary; and 1000 Miles, primarily based on the memoir Operating A Thousand Miles For Freedom by William and Ellen Craft. Beneath his total deal at UCP, he is also creating a TV sequence primarily based on Usher’s album Confessions. He’s repped by CAA, Leisure 360, and Del Shaw Moonves.
