Shonda Rhimes of Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder and Dee Rees, writer/director of Pariah, are teaming up for the adaptation of The Warmth Of Other Suns for FX.
The Warmth Of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson published in 2010, is a nonfiction historical study of The Great Migration. It spans from 1915 to 1970 when roughly 6 million blacks fled the American south for safety in the west and the north. FX will adapt the book for a limited series, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Wilkerson follows three people’s stories in the book; Ida Mae Gladney who left Mississippi for Chicago in 1937, Dr. Robert Pershing Foster who went from Louisiana to Los Angeles in 1953, and George Starling who left Florida for Harlem in 1945, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rees will write the script and adapt the book for FX and Rhimes along with Betsey Beers will executive produce through the ABC banner Shondaland. The drama is in the early stages of development and is a co-production between FX Productions and ABC Studios’ cable arm ABC Signature, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This will be Rhimes’ first step into cable programming and will be ABC Signature’s second major high-profile cable project. Their other project stars Kerry Washington (Scandal) as Anita Hill in HBO’s Confirmation.
The Shondaland banner is also working on a new drama The Catch for the 2015-2016 broadcast season for ABC.