Showtime have ordered a pilot for a new series based on the 1999 film The Wood.
Rick Famuyiwa, who wrote and directed the film and has since gone on to make movies such as Dope and Talk To Me, while also helming episodes of The Mandalorian, will direct the pilot and also executive produce the potential series. Justin Hillian (The Chi, Snowfall) will write the pilot.
The Wood starred Omar Epps, Richard T. Jones, and Taye Diggs, and followed the friendship and love life of the three lifelong Black friends born and raised in the gentrifying L.A. suburb of Inglewood over a number of decades. The film focuses on their struggles to balance fatherhood, ambition and loyalty, and questions whether they are growing apart or closer together.
Famuyiwa co-wrote the semi-autobiographical film with Todd Boyd. Right now it’s unclear if this new series will follow the same characters later in life, or be a reimagining/retelling of the 1999 film.
Hillian and Famuyiwa will executive produce with David Gale and Van Toffler for Gunpowder & Sky, while Paramount Television Studios is the studio behind the project. They’re also producing another Showtime TV project based on a film – an American Gigolo series reboot starring Jon Bernthal.
Famuyiwa has been focused on TV since his last movie, Dope, arrived in 2015. He directed HBO film Confirmation in 2016 and has worked on the aforementioned Mandalorian and The Chi.
He is attached to direct a film adaptation of young adult fantasy novel Children Of Blood And Bone, which is being produced by Lucasfilm and 20th Century Studios.
#Peace.Love.TheWood
