After a competitive bidding war, Skydance Television has landed the rights to adapt P. Djéli Clark’s fantasy historical novella Ring Shout into a TV series starring Kiki Layne. Kasi Lemmons is attached to write and direct.
Published in October, the novel confronts the KKK’s reign of terror with what is described as honesty and a supernatural twist. Tagged a “dark fantasy historical novella,” Ring Shout tells the story of Maryse Boudreaux and her band of badass women as they storm through early 1920s Georgia on a quest to find and eliminate the monsters she calls “Ku Klux.” The physical embodiment of racism, these Ku Klux are embedded among the well-known Klan, using their superhuman size and strength to spread hatred throughout the nation. And it appears they are adapting and evolving day by day to become even more dangerous.
Layne, who recently starred in Netflix’s The Old Guard opposite Charlize Theron, will star as Maryse.
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Lemmons and Layne will exec produce the series alongside author Djéli Clark, Marc Evans, Matt Jackson and Skydance TV’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Bill Bost. There is currently no network attached. Skydance TV plans to shop the package to streaming services and premium cable networks.
Ring Shout is the latest priority development in the works at Skydance Television. The studio is currently working on a spy adventure series starring and executive produced by Arnold Schwarzenegger from creator Nick Santora; a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama from Leawaa Nasserdeen; and Hotel del Luna from Alison Schapker. Skydance Television has entered into overall deals with producers David S. Goyer, Alison Schapker and Nick Santora as well as showrunners Olivia Purnell and Lewaa Nasserdeen. Skydance’s television slate includes Grace and Frankie, Altered Carbon, Condor, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Foundation and Jack Reacher.
This sounds like it will be in the vein of Lovecraft Country and if so, we have high hopes for this project.