According to Deadline, FX has ordered a pilot for an adaptation of Kindred, the landmark 1979 sci-fi novel from Octavia E. Butler about a Black woman who hops back and forth in time from her normal life in the ‘70s to a plantation in pre-Civil War Maryland—leading to mysteries and revelations about her own family, the realities of slavery in the United States, and how it all relates to modern life. The adaptation is coming from writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, producers Courtney Lee-Mitchell, Joe Weisberg, and Joel Fields, plus Darren Aronofsky and his Protozoa Pictures label.
In a statement, Jacobs-Jenkins (who was a consulting producer on Watchmen) said that “few, if any, books” have meant as much to him as Kindred, and it has been “the highlight and honor” of his career to be able to work on this adaptation. This project is still just a pilot at this point, so it might not become a full series, but Kindred was and is a hugely popular novel and this adaptation could have some real FX-friendly genre-blending hooks. Plus, there’s a weirdly coincidental timely connection here, as NASA named the landing area for the Perseverance Mars rover after Octavia E. Butler (who died in 2006).
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Finally. Sheesh!
I was sure this was what Antebellum was going to be when I saw the trailer and was disappointed that it wasn’t, so I’m glad we’re finally getting an actual adaptation.
I hope it’s good, but I’m wary of TV in general and adapting a story so tied to its narrator to a medium that usually involves multiple perspectives. I think being locked into Dana — and very pointedly, not Rufus or Kevin, the white dudes in the story — is important. But maybe they can pull it off. Also, let Ernest Dickerson make his Clay’s Ark adaptation you cowards.
I’m hopeful but wary. So much of it is Dana’s interior monologue as she thinks through her choices and reactions. I’m also assuming they’ll update the modern day stuff to now from the 1970s. Hopefully they can pull it off.
I don’t think there’s much that anchors it to the 70s (just that it was the present when the book was written), so I’d agree an update seems likely.
The main thing would be that it was slightly harder for Dana to get info when she comes back to the present day. In the book she was afraid to go to the library because of the danger of disappearing again, whereas now she could just google a lot of info. But that’s not an insurmountable thing.
Oh wow, did not know about the NASA/Mars tribute. Pretty cool, considering the Destiny of Earthseed.
I’m cautiously optimistic, which is the best kind of optimistic!
so who are we dreamcasting as Dana?
Does anyone remember the very, thankfully, short-lived Fox drama, Kindred : The Embraced, which was, I shit you not, based on Vampire : The Masquerade?
After The Americans, Weisberg and Fields automatically get me a watch.
Every year there seems to be a project in the works for an adaptation of one of Ms. Butler’s novels, but they don’t materialize.Kindred would be easier to adapt than Dawn however, so keeping fingers crossed…