Nia DaCosta has signed on to direct the film adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ best-selling novel, The Water Dancer. According to Variety, DaCosta will work alongside a production team that includes Maceo-Lyn, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films. Metro Goldwyn Mayer is also reportedly involved in making the film.
Released in 2019, The Water Dancer is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ first work of fiction. It was selected as a part of Oprah’s Book Club and debuted at number one on The New York Times‘ fiction best-seller list.
“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,” the book’s description reads.
“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.”
DaCosta joins the highly-anticipated project after working with Jordan Peele on the latest edition of Candyman. Moving forward, she’s slated to direct next year’s release, The Marvels. Within the next few years, DaCosta is on pace to become one of Hollywood’s most talked about directors.
