“Fast Color” could be making its way to the small screen. Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions is developing a series based on the Gugu Mbatha-Raw-starrer alongside the sci-fi feature’s writer-director Julia Hart and co-writer Jordan Horowitz’s Original Headquarters and Mickey Liddell’s LD Entertainment. Deadline confirmed the news.
Released in theaters this April, “Fast Color” made its world premiere at SXSW 2018.
The series will center on Ruth, “a former drug addict and runaway, who returns home and rediscovers the special powers she thought she lost, powers that her family have long kept hidden from the public,” the source summarizes. “Three generations of black women reconnect and as they learn more about themselves and the generations who came before, they begin to realize that one of them could save the world.”
“Since the day we premiered at SXSW, there has been an incredible outpouring of grassroots support for this film,” Hart said. “We couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to continue living in this world, with these women, and can’t imagine better partners than Viola and Julius and Mickey and Pete and everyone at Amazon.”
Hart made her feature directorial debut with 2016’s “Miss Stevens,” a comedy that follows a high school teacher as she chaperones a drama competition. Her upcoming projects include “Stargirl,” Disney’s upcoming adaptation of the award-winning 2000 YA novel about a nonconformist teen, and “I’m Your Woman,” an Amazon Studios feature about a woman who goes on the run with her child due to her husband’s crimes. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s” Rachel Brosnahan stars in the latter.
“Tell female stories,” Hart urged when we asked her advice for other female filmmakers. “I don’t know, maybe I’m not supposed to say that, but if we don’t, who will? Some of my favorite female characters were written by men. I’m not saying men can’t [write women]. I’m just saying, they’ve got men covered. They’ve got them covered in spades. So let’s tell a few stories about women while we’re here.”
“Our commitment at JuVee as artists is what fuels our imagination. We want to play. We want to challenge. We want to ask, ‘What if….,’” said Davis and Tennon. “’Fast Color’ allows us to live in a world that fulfills all of the above. It’s a story and world that reminds us that not only do we have a soul, but we have extraordinary, unlikely women who fiercely protect it.”
JuVee Productions is developing a drama series based on Octavia Butler sci-fi “Wild Seed” for Amazon Studios. Davis’ slate includes “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” a Netflix pic that tells the story of Ma Rainey, a blues singer making a record in 1920s Chicago.
