Director Julie Anne Robinson is fresh off an Emmy nomination for Bridgerton, but she’s not resting on her laurels.
She’s already setting up her next project, optioning Vanessa Riley‘s new novel Island Queen for a TV adaptation. Bridgerton standout Adjoa Andoh will reportedly join her to executive produce the series under Robinson’s Longboat Pictures production company.
Island Queen is based on a true story, and revolves around Dorothy ‘Doll’ Kirwan Thomas, a woman born a slave who bought her freedom and went on to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners of the early nineteenth-century Caribbean.
The novel, which Longboat Pictures secured when it was at only the manuscript stage, received critical acclaim when released earlier this month.
Andoh already has a connection with the novel, as she narrates the audiobook. She said in a statement: “In Island Queen, Vanessa has beautifully reintegrated the extraordinary history and perspective of an empowered black woman, into the wider story of Caribbean slavery and the British Empire. Putting history back into history, this is a story whose time is now.
I am so excited to be working alongside Julie Anne again at Longboat as we develop this project, bringing Vanessa’s vision and Dorothy’s astonishing true story to the screen.”
Bridgerton premiered on Netflix back in December, and went on to become Netflix’s most-watched series, reaching No. 1 in 76 countries. It’s been renewed for three more seasons already. Although Robinson is a seasoned TV director, her acclaimed work on the show has clearly opened doors for her. The chance to adapt an acclaimed novel like Island Queen is a pretty smart next step.
#Peace.Love.IslandQueen
