Shonda Rhimes and Dee Rees Team Up for New TV Drama
Shonda Rhimes is heading to cable TV with the help of writer/director Dee Rees. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the new project, to be helmed by the two ladies, is based on Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns.
Set to appear on FX, the adaptation will be written by Rees and will mark the Shondaland group's first venture into the cable arena. The Warmth of Other Suns, published in 2010, is a nonfiction study of the Great Migration where, between 1915 and 1970, almost six million Black citizens fled the South for a safer way of life in the northern and western cities.
Wilkerson, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for feature writing, becoming the first African-American woman to do so, spent 15 years writing the book and was recognized for her work with the National Book Award for nonfiction.
Rees, who was noticed in 2011 for her feature Pariah, earning her an Independent Spirit Award, will write the script for the series based on Wilkerson's book. Her latest credit is the upcoming HBO biopic Bessie, starring Queen Latifah, which she also directed.
Rhimes and her production partner Betsy Beers will produce the drama through their ABC Studios-based Shondaland banner.
Take a look at how Shonda Rhimes changed the small screen below:
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(Photos from left: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Elle/Hearts On Fire, Cindy Ord/Getty Images for HBO)
