Oprah and Brad Pitt are teaming on Ta-Nehisi Coates' ‘The Water Dancer’

Fans of prolific author Ta-Nehisi Coates have something to celebrate today after Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt revealed they’re teaming up with MGM to make a movie adaption of his best-selling 2019 book, The Water Dancer.The news comes just 10 days before HBO debuts a televised special of Coates’ memoir-turned-stage-play Between the World and Me, making this a pretty good month for the 45-year-old author. It’s also a good month for Coates’ collaborator Kamilah Forbes, who directed the HBO special and will now also serve as a producer on this upcoming film.[video_embed id='2001534']RELATED: HBO developing Ta-Nehisi Coates book & stage show into special TV event[/video_embed]Coates will be the one to adapt the script from his debut novel, a novel that also happened to be the first selection of Winfrey’s revived Book Club when it was published last year. As THR points out in announcing the new film, The Water Dancer also topped many “best books of the year” lists in 2019, including those published by Time, NPR, Vanity Fair and Esquire.

 

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“Today’s agenda...” Posted @withrepost • @oprahmagazine @oprah’s newest pick for @oprahsbookclub: The Water Dancer by @tanehisipcoates. She says, “I knew early on the book was going to cut me up. I ended up with my soul pierced.” Tap the link in our bio to join the discussion!

A post shared by Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisipcoates) on Sep 23, 2019 at 6:13am PDT

The Water Dancer takes place in the pre-Civil War South and revolves around a character named Hiram Walker. The man, who was born into bondage, has a photographic memory yet no recollection of his mother until a carriage accident triggers some powerful memories. He then learns of a hidden superpower called conduction, which allows him to travel large distances. While using conduction he aligns himself with the Underground Railroad, meeting some of the network’s important historical figures along the way—including abolitionist Harriet Tubman.The novel uses magical realism to highlight historic Black folklore themes of escape while presenting slaves as the backbone of the American economy. The owners, meanwhile, are shown as products of circumstance who retain their power through fear and systemic privilege. Many fans of Coates’ work feel that makes it a relevant and important story in today’s current conversations about systemic racism, the Black Lives Matter movement, and understanding the history behind such exchanges.“This book is written in the hopes of not making a spectacle of the kind of violence that was integral to slavery,” Coates wrote in an Instagram post in October 2019. “It had to be there no doubt. Enslavement is torture. And enslavement is rape. There’s no way around it. But to be enslaved—to be Tasked—does not obviate your humanity. It is not who you are. It is what someone else did. Never did I better understand the need for words like “survivor” until I wrote #thewaterdancer.”

 

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Wildest thing about being selected for @oprahsbookclub is watching @oprah actually conduct (see what I did there) a seminar via IG. This week I think folks went up to chapter nine, which had some of the hardest scenes to write. The thing with Thena is a real low point for me. I came up in a house where the worst thing you could do is disrespect your mother, so it hit me in a kind of way. And then Georgie. Sigh. On a serious note, this book is written in the hopes of not making a spectacle of the kind of violence that was integral to slavery. It had to be there no doubt. Enslavement is torture. And enslavement is rape. There’s no way around it. But to be enslaved—to be Tasked—does not obviate your humanity. It is not who you are. It is what someone else did. Never did I better understand the need for words like “survivor” until I wrote #thewaterdancer. There is the crime. And then there is how society turns you into the crime itself. And we are all always so much more than that.

A post shared by Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisipcoates) on Oct 8, 2019 at 8:13pm PDT

“I’m honored to be working with Harpo, Plan B and my old friend Kamilah Forbes,” Coates added in a statement to THR announcing the movie. “We all believe that MGM is the best home for this adaptation and look forward to bringing it to life.”In addition to writing The Water Dancer and penning Between the World and Me, Coates has also written The Beautiful Struggle and We Were Eight Years in Power. He has also shared his words in The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and he has authored issues of the Marvel comics Black Panther and Captain America.[video_embed id='2011257']Before you go: Oprah speaks out about white privilege[/video_embed]