The story of Elaine Brown, the only woman to serve as a Black Panther Party leader, is coming to the big screen. The Firm has obtained the rights to Brown’s 1992 memoir, “A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story,” with plans for a film adaptation, Deadline confirms. Brown will executive produce the project.
The Firm is “currently in negotiations with a writer to adapt Brown’s book” but no word yet on who that writer is or on the project’s director.
Brown joined the Black Panthers in 1968 and led the party from 1974 to 1977 while co-founder Huey Newton was in exile. During her tenure as a Black Panther leader, she “worked to redefine the Panthers’ revolutionary platform to include objectives relating to black women,” Deadline summarizes. Currently living in Oakland, CA, Brown works as a lawyer and is still very much involved in progressive activism, especially in the areas of racial justice and prison reform.
“Elaine is a true revolutionary,” Brenner stated. “We are so thrilled to work with such an extraordinary woman and, after getting to know Elaine personally, I am deeply humbled to have the opportunity to bring her inspirational story to the big screen.”
Earlier this year 1492 Pictures announced its plans to produce a biopic about Fannie Lou Hamer, another pioneering female activist. Hamer helped spearhead the 1962 Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and made headlines when she spoke as the representative of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
