Nia DaCosta will direct a film adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel, The Water Dancer, Variety reports.
The feature will be the fourth full-length movie to be directed by DaCosta, who previously helmed Little Woods and Candyman. Her next film, The Marvels, is scheduled to be released in February 2023.
Coates’ debut novel, published in 2019 by One World, follows a young man, born into slavery, who possesses a supernatural power that leads to his escape from bondage. A critic for Kirkus praised the book’s merging of “magic, adventure, and antebellum intrigue” and said that “even [Coates’] most melodramatic effects are deepened by historical facts and contemporary urgency.”
The book was an instant bestseller and a pick for Oprah Winfrey’s influential book club. Winfrey had high praise for the novel, saying it was “one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life, right up there in the top five.”
Two influential production companies are behind the film adaptation: Winfrey’s Harpo Films, and Plan B Entertainment, which is owned by Brad Pitt. Maceo-Lyn, a company co-founded by Coates, will also produce.
Coates’ work has been adapted for the screen before. His 2015 nonfiction book, Between the World and Me, formed the basis for a 2020 HBO television special directed by Kamilah Forbes. The special received positive reviews from critics, with David Rapp of Kirkus saying it “takes the idea of a staged reading to a more powerful, and personal, place” and “gets across all the power of Coates’ words, and more.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
