After picking up the Best Picture trophy for 12 Years a Slave and guiding newcomer Lupita Nyong’o to a Best Actress win, Steve McQueen is using his considerably increased clout to bring a passion project to life.
McQueen is currently attached to the pilot for Codes of Conduct, an upcoming HBO drama about a young black man entering New York’s high society, as well as a biopic of singer and civil-rights leader Paul Robeson. But perhaps closest to his heart is his most recently announced project: the big-screen adaptation of a 1983 BBC show called Widows, about a quartet of women who pick up their husbands’ trade as robbers after a heist leaves three of the men dead.
McQueen has fast-tracked the Widows film to be his follow-up to 12 Years a Slave. He will write, direct, and likely change the title. The TV series was written by Lynda La Plante, best known for creating Prime Suspect.
McQueen was reportedly a teenage fan of the series when it first premiered three decades ago. The Hollywood Reporter describes the Widows adaptation as “a passion project for the director, with its themes of female empowerment.”
[via THR]
