Amazon has secured Moonlight director Barry Jenkins to direct all 11 episodes of its new limited series The Underground Railroad, the streaming service announced Tuesday.
The series, based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling novel The Underground Railroad, will premiere globally on Amazon Prime Video. The series follows Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia who joins a fellow slave in escaping via the Underground Railroad – a network of tracks and tunnels constructed in secret beneath the very Southern soil upon which they've been enslaved, according to Amazon.
The Underground Railroad is executive produced by Jenkins’ PASTEL production company and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, said Amazon.
“It’s an absolute gift to have Barry Jenkins commit to directing all the episodes for our upcoming limited series The Underground Railroad,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios in a statement. “Barry’s eye for character and sustained exhilarating, emotional storytelling style ensures that this project is in the right hands. We can’t wait to get started and bring this significant story to our Prime Video audience.”
Barry Jenkins added: "Working with Amazon and a wonderful group of screenwriters to develop Colson's novel into a limited series has been an extremely rewarding experience. Translating his singular voice into a cohesive and equally singular visual language is a task I very much look forward to."
