As the old adage goes, sometimes when it rains it pours. Barry Jenkins is no stranger to Hollywood but he does feel like a newcomer because he only has two films under his belt so far. The first was “Medicine for Melancholy," a solid directorial debut that managed to put Jenkins on the map. His second film “Moonlight” however managed to make the biggest mark possible by not only winning the Oscar award for best feature film but also setting a new standard for the industry in general. Jenkins will never have trouble finding work in the future which is why it comes as no surprise that Amazon has already signed off on his next project.
Digging through American history
Barry Jenkins’ latest project sounds fascinating to say the least. He will be working on a limited series for Amazon studios, and it has been title “The Underground Railroad." The story of the series is being adapted from a Colsen Whitehead novel of the same name, and it explores the life of a young woman named Cora.
She has been forcefully employed at a plantation in Georgia, but rumors of an Underground Railroad catch her attention and force her to escape in an attempt to gain her freedom. She has to go through several obstacles to find the railway, but when she does her mind is blown away by seeing a secret network of tracks and tunnels being developed by just a handful of engineers and conductors without anyone's knowledge.
What to expect
There is no doubt that expectations will be high from Barry Jenkins after his last project. The writer and director seems to be extremely enthusiastic about his latest series, and about the prospect of working with Amazon.
He had these choice words to share during a recent interview: “It’s a groundbreaking work that pays respect to our nation’s history while using the form to explore it in a thoughtful and original way.
Preserving the sweep and grandeur of a story like this requires bold, innovative thinking and in Amazon we’ve found a partner whose reverence for storytelling and freeness of form is wholly in line with our vision.”
“The Underground Railroad” does not have a release date yet and we still have no idea about the cast involved in the project, but there is no doubt that Jenkins and Amazon will work toward fully realizing this beautiful and original idea that is brimming with potential.
