After producing the all-Black westernThe Harder They Fallfor Netflix,Jay-Zis returning to the streamer to produce an adaptation ofDwayne Alexander Smith’s novelForty Acres, which is described as a cross betweenThe FirmandGet Out.
Deadline broke the news, reporting thatLuke CagecreatorCheo Hodari Cokerwill adapt the book, which follows a Civil Rights attorney who must fight for survival when he’s invited to join an elite black organization with a mind-blowing secret. That’s a juicy logline that invites all kinds of speculation and conspiracy theories, so sign me up! It sounds like a grown-up version ofThe Skullswith Black leads, so I’m actually really interested to see who winds up directing this movie, because there’s a lot of potential in this premise.
Coker will join Jay-Z as a producer along withAaron Kaplanof Kapital Entertainment andJames Lassiter, the latter of whom also producedThe Harder They Fall. Author Smith will executive produce alongsideMike Epps,Niles Kirchner,Bill Straussand Kapital’sDana Honor, and the project is still in early development at Netflix, so casting conversations are still a ways off.
Forty Acreswas actually pitched to Kapital as a potential TV series, though Kaplan thought the book would work better as a movie, and decided to makeForty Acreshis company’s first feature project. The movie reunites him with Jay-Z and Lassiter, as the trio are also behind ABC’s upcoming limited seriesWomen of the Movement.
Coker is a former journalist who now has an overall deal for television at Amazon, which is why he was able to takeForty Acresto Netflix, where he served as creator, showrunner and executive producer of the streamer’s stylish Marvel seriesLuke Cage. His feature credits includeCreed II,Lowridersand theNotorious B.I.G.biopicNotorious, though he also had a hand in writing the music biopicsStraight Outta ComptonandAll Eyez on Me. Coker is also writing a sequel toMark Wahlberg’s 2005 movieFour Brothersfor Paramount, which has also hired him to adaptGucci Mane’s autobiographyDiary of a Trap God.
Click herefor the latest onCreed IIIand who might direct the sequel starringMichael B. Jordan.
