FX Select Series ‘Kindred’ Based on Novels by Octavia E. Butler – The Hollywood Reporter

FX is moving forward with an adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred.

The Disney-owned store ordered the series for Kindred, from FX Productions and writer and showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (The guard). It is based on the influential 1979 novel by Hugo Award winner and MacArthur Fellow Butler, about a young black woman in Los Angeles who finds herself pulled back in time.

FX has ordered a pilot for Kindred in March 2021. Janicza Bravo (Zola) directed the pilot episode. The film stars newcomers Mallori Johnson, Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, Gayle Rankin, Austin Smith, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy and David Alexander Kaplan.

“Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has done a phenomenal job of adapting Kindred for FX and celebrates the legacy and timeless value of Octavia Butler’s groundbreaking novel,” said Nick Grad, FX’s president of original programming. “The pilot directed by Janicza Bravo was brilliant, and we can’t wait to continue producing with this incredibly talented and dedicated cast.”

Kindred revolves around Dana (Johnson), an aspiring writer who has given up her life of domestic duty and moved to Los Angeles to claim a future she has only felt for once. Before she can settle into her new home, however, she finds herself dragged back in time to a 19th-century plantation where she and her family are most intimately and surprisingly bonded. An interracial romance runs through her past and present, and the clock is ticking as she struggles to face secrets she never knew run through her blood. that.

Jacobs-Jenkins will serve as host for the series and executive produce alongside Courtney Lee-Mitchell (Reluctant fundamentalist), the copyright holder of the novel; Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel of Protozoa Pictures; American EP Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields; Ernestine Walker; and Merrilee Heifetz.