Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood is re-teaming with her leading lady from 2014’s “Beyond the Lights” to bring Roxane Gay’s debut novel to the big screen. Prince-Bythewood will direct rising star Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Belle”) in “An Untamed State,” based on Gay’s 2015 book of the same name. Prince-Bythewood and Gay will write the script for the Fox Searchlight drama together.
The novel centers on Mireille Duval Jameson, a rich, happily married Haitian-American with an infant son. Mireille’s fairy tale life is shattered when she’s kidnapped by a gang and held for ransom. This new-found sense of fear and vulnerability leads Mireille to confront her privilege and consider just what kind of person she’s become — and who she wants to be if she can make it out alive.
Mbatha-Raw last appeared in “Concussion.” She has a number of high-profile roles in the works, including an appearance in the upcoming live-action adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast” starring Emma Watson.
Prince-Bythewood will write, direct and executive produce Fox’s new police drama “Shots Fired.” Helen Hunt and Sanaa Lathan (“Nip/Tuck”) star in the Black Lives Matter-inspired series that tackles a racially-charged shooting. Lathan and Prince-Bythewood worked together on the 2000 romance “Love & Basketball.”
[via Deadline]
