Director Barry Jenkins will follow 2016s Oscar-winning filmMoonlightwith an adaptation of James Baldwins 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk. Annapurna and Moonlight production company Plan B will produce the project, Variety reports.
Jenkins wrote the adaptation, with support from the Baldwin estate, in 2013 during the same summer he authored the Moonlight screenplay. Like the book, the movie follows Tish, a pregnant Harlem woman who frantically works to prove her fianc Fonnys innocence after he is falsely accused of rape.
To translate the power of Tish and Fonnys love to the screen in Baldwins image is a dream Ive long held dear, Jenkins said in a statement. Working alongside the Baldwin Estate, Im excited to finally make that dream come true.
Baldwins sister, Gloria Karefa-Smart, said the family is delighted to entrust Jenkins with the adaptation, after being greatly impressed with his debut picture, 2008s Medicine for Melancholy.
Jenkins is also working on an limited series adaptation of Colson Whiteheads 2016 New York Times best-selling novel, The Underground Railroad, for Amazon. The show will chronicle the journey of Cora, a fugitive slave pursuing freedom after escaping her Georgia plantation.
Moonlight, which Rolling Stones Peter Travers ranked as 2017s third-best film, received eight total nominations at this years Oscars. Jenkins was nominated for Best Director and won for Best Adapted Screenplay.