In their first acquisition since signing a first-look deal, Michael B. Jordan‘s Outlier Society and Warner Bros. have acquired the film rights to Marlon James‘ new epic fantasy novel Black Leopard, Red Wolf.
The novel is based in African mythology and follows Tracker, who has a keen sense of smell, and is tasked with finding a missing child against a backdrop of competing kingdoms and violent political upheaval. The story has a cast of characters which includes a witch, a shape-shifting leopard, a murderous hyena, and conjoined twins.
It is the first novel in James’ Dark Star Trilogy, where African myth, fantasy, and history will merge together. James has won the Booker Prize for his novel A History of Seven Killings, while his first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and also a New York Times Editor’s Choice. He will be an executive producer on the film adaptation.
Jordan founded Outlier Society back in 2016 with a focus on bringing eclectic and inclusive, diverse stories and voices to the market. The company is also one of the first to publicly adopt the inclusion rider, a provision in a contract that guarantees a certain level of diversity in casting and production staff, which became widely known during Frances McDormand‘s acceptance speech at the 2018 Oscars.
Outlier Society previously helped produce the HBO adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. Other projects they have in the works include the WWII action drama The Liberators, the sci-fi series Raising Dion, and the drama series David Makes A Man, which hails from Oscar-winning Moonlight co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney.
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