Steven Spielberg, Taika Waititi  Teaming to Adapt ‘James’

Common has landed the rights to Erasure writer Percival Everett’s James, and is assembling a group of Oscar-winners to deliver it to the display.

Steven Spielberg will government produce the undertaking by way of his Amblin Companions, with Taika Waititi in early talks to direct the variation. The bundle comes after American Fiction, an adaptation of Everett’s novel Erasure, took residence the tailored screenplay Oscar earlier this 12 months.

James is a contemporary reimagining of Mark Twain’s 1884 novel The Adventures Huckleberry Finn, instructed from the perspective of Jim. In accordance the the logline: “when the enslaved Jim overhears that he’s about to be offered to a person in New Orleans, separated from his spouse and daughter eternally, he decides to cover on close by Jackson Island till he can formulate a plan. In the meantime, Huck Finn has faked his personal demise to flee his violent father, just lately returned to city. Thus begins the damaging and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River towards the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and past.”

The guide grew to become bestseller when Doubleday revealed it in March, and is the newest in a line of 30 books of fiction and poetry from Everett, who’s a Pulitzer Prize finalist for 2020’s Phone. He’s repped by CAA and the Melanie Jackson Company.

Spielberg, a three-time Oscar winner for Schindler’s Record and Saving Personal Ryan, is directing a 2026 occasion movie for Common that may star Emily Blunt. He’s repped by CAA and Gang Tyre.

Waititi, who received an tailored screenplay Oscar for Jojo Rabbit, is in post-production on Sony’s Klara and the Solar, starring Jenna Ortega. Waititi is repped by CAA, Handle-ment and Yorn Levine.

Selection first reported the information.