“Out of Africa” may be headed to to the small screen. A series adaptation of Karen Blixen’s memoir — the inspiration behind the 1985 Meryl Streep-Robert Redford romance — is being developed by “Harry Potter” producer David Heyman, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. Oscar- and Emmy-winning director Susanne Bier has signed on to helm the project as well as executive produce.
Originally published in 1937, Blixen’s book “recounts the 17 years that [she] spent in the Ngong Hills of Kenya during the last decades of the British Empire as she searched to find her role and voice in a changing world,” THR summarizes. The film adaptation of her journey, helmed by Sydney Pollack, won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, and was a box office hit, grossing more than $128 million.
“Heyman’s Heyday Television — a joint venture with NBCUniversal International Studios — has acquired the rights to the book,” THR writes. Joining Bier as an executive producer is Heyday’s Nancy Cotton.
“‘I had a farm in Africa’ is Blixen’s most famous line: she was a survivor, unpredictable and nonconformist, and a determined explorer,” Heyman said in a statement. “We are beyond delighted that Susanne Bier has such a passionate attachment to Karen’s story: with such critically acclaimed work in both film and television, she is the ideal director to transport us to Africa through the eyes of Denmark’s most celebrated writer. And of course, the long form series offers us the chance to explore not only Karen’s world, but also the perspective of the Kenyans she encounters.”
Bier added, “Karen Blixen defied the male-dominated world at every turn. Despite heavy resistance, she single-handedly ran her farm in Africa. She felt a greater kinship with the indigenous Kenyan population than any of her class peers. She both found and lost the love for which she had always longed. She has always fascinated me. This opportunity to engage with her enduring legacy is a great challenge and even greater privilege.”
In 2016, Bier won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or a Dramatic Special for “The Night Manager.” She helmed every episode of the acclaimed AMC spy miniseries starring Tom Hiddleston (“The Avengers”), Hugh Laurie (“House”), Olivia Colman (“Broadchurch”), and Elizabeth Debicki (“The Great Gatsby”). The Danish filmmaker’s thriller “In a Better World” took home the Oscar in 2011 for Best Foreign Language Film. Her other credits include “Things We Lost in the Fire,” “After the Wedding,” and “Brothers.”
“Television is a popular art form that is truly global. There’s less space for the conventional, predictable assumptions of film production that dictate that, as a female director, I can only do romantic dramas and comedies,” Bier has said. She warned that the medium is “is not a feminist utopia” and emphasized, “The entire entertainment industry has much work to do to reflect the diversity of its audience. There’s still something threatening about a female vision when it strays beyond the ‘woman’s picture’,” she said. “The industry is in desperate need of new perspectives.”
