If you cast your mind back to November 2020, you may remember the announcement that none other than Oprah Winfrey was set to adapt Ta-Nehisi Coates’ best-selling novel The Water Dancer for the big screen.

The buzz was more than justified: since being picked as Oprah’s book of the year in 2019, The Water Dancer has gone on to become a #1 New York Times bestseller, with over a million copies sold.

Now, nearly two years later, there has been an exciting development, with The Hollywood Reporter confirming that award-winning director Nia DaCosta will be helming the film’s production, under studio MGM.

DaCosta, known for her feature film Little Woods and horror Candyman, is set to cut her teeth in her first big studio pic, Marvel’s The Marvels, which will be released in 2023.

The screenplay for The Water Dancer will be penned by Coates himself, drawing directly from the novel.

The blurb reads: “Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her – but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.

“So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.”

Following the initial announcement, Brad Pitt was reported to be on board with the project alongside Winfrey, though it’s yet to be confirmed if this remains the case. However, we do know that DaCosta and Winfrey will work with Apollo Theater producer Kamilah Forbes to bring the fantastical story to life for MGM.

“Ta-Nehisi’s debut fiction novel has at its heart, a beautiful character in Hiram Walker, whose personal odyssey weaves the supernatural and spiritual, with the terrible reality of the forced separations endured by enslaved people and their families for centuries,” said MGM’s film group chairman Michael De Luca and MGM’s film group president Pamela Abdy in a statement back in 2020. 

“Hiram’s story is one of devotion to those he loves, and the journey he takes to bring them together. All of us at MGM are incredibly honoured to join Ta-Nehisi, Kamilah, Plan B and Harpo Films in bringing this film to the screen.”

“I’m honoured to be working with Harpo, Plan B and my old friend Kamilah Forbes,” Coates said. “We all believe that MGM is the best home for this adaptation and look forward to bringing it to life.”

Although it will be a while before the movie starts production, now is the perfect time to add The Water Dancer to your reading list.

Images: Getty, Blackwells