Anika Noni Rose is working on taking “Shadowshaper” from the page to the screen. The Tony winner — and her production company, Roaring Virgin Productions — have purchased the film and TV rights for Daniel José Older’s best-selling YA fantasy series, Deadline reports.
Published in 2015 and named a New York Times Notable Book of the year, “Shadowshaper” introduces Sierra Santiago, “who lives in Brooklyn and discovers shadowshaping, a magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories,” the source summarizes. “But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one — and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret.” The second installment of the Shadowshaper Cypher series, “Shadowhouse Fall,” is slated to hit shelves this September.
In a statement, Rose emphasized the significance of “Shadowshaper’s” protagonist and story. “‘Shadowshaper’ was a book I couldn’t put down. At a time when so many are feeling powerless, Sierra Santiago is a young Afro-Latina heroine who finds her power within herself,” she said. “Through a strong spiritual connection to her ancestors, the discovery of the magic living in her art, and with the help of some amazing friends, she saves her family, and her Brooklyn neighborhood from certain destruction. A face and culture we rarely see on screen; she is the heroine we’ve been searching for, only to find she lives right next door.”
Rose is clearly a big fan of Older’s writing. In 2015, she optioned the film and TV rights to “Bone Street Rumba,” Older’s urban fantasy book series. “Half-Resurrection Blues,” the first book in the series, focuses on Carlos Delacruz, an in-betweener existing somewhere between life and death and serving as an agent in the New York Council of the Dead.
The former “Good Wife” actress is attached to produce and star in a film based on Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress, and the first woman ever to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Rose won a Tony for her performance in “Caroline, Or Change.” She currently toplines “The Quad,” a BET series about the newly elected President of a fictional university.
“Bates Motel,” “Private Practice,” and “Dreamgirls” are among Rose’s previous acting credits. She voiced Princess Tiana in Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog.”
