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The film version of Richard Wright’s iconic Native Son, directed by Rashid Johnson, has been acquired by HBO before the movie’s Sundance debut.
It’s been a long time coming. Back in 2017, Bow and Arrow Entertainment announced that it has acquired the rights to Native Son, which will be produced along with A24.
Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Park adapted the screenplay, and artist/photographer Rashid Johnson will make his directorial debut, Deadline announced Thursday.
Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson, KiKi Layne, Elizabeth Marvel, David Alan Grier, Sanaa Lathan, and Bill Camp will also star in the film
Johnson says the legendary movie will be a “modern re-imagining” of Wright’s 1940 book. The movie will star Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) as Bigger “Big” Thomas, whose whole life changes after he starts working for a wealthy Chicago family.
Moving into their mansion, [Big] begins driving Dalton’s vehemently progressive daughter, Mary. But his involvement in an accidental death places Big on a collision course with the powerful social forces pitted against him. A thoroughly contemporary reworking of Richard Wright’s 1940 novel, Native Son asserts the story’s persistent relevance by bringing its interrogation of fear, violence, race, and circumstance into a critical modern context.
The highly anticipated project will air on HBO later this year.
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