Plan B and Adele Romanski, producers of the film Moonlight, are re-teaming with the movie’s writer and director Barry Jenkins for a new limited series based on Colson Whitehead’s highly-acclaimed novel The Underground Railroad.
The novel, published last month, is a work of magical realism revolving around an underground train that transports slaves across an alternate America, as Deadline reported. It is both a National Book Award finalist and Oprah Book Club pick. The plot is centered around Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia, and her journey on the train as she is being hunted down by a slave catcher.
This limited series will not be the first time the underground railroad will be depicted on television, however. Underground, a drama series from WGN America and produced by Akiva Goldsman and John Legend is centered around the railroad. In addition, last year, with Stevie Wonder as executive producer, NBC put in development Freedom Run, an eight-hour miniseries and stage musical set against the backdrop of the railroad with Stevie Wonder executive producing. So far, the miniseries has made no progress.