Gina Prince-Bythewood is set to direct the potential pilot of Good People, a drama series in development at Universal Television based on Friends and Family, the second novel by Queen Sugar author Natalie Baszile.
Marissa Jo Cerar (Black Cake) will write the adaptation, with Prince-Bythewood and Mary J. Blige and Debra Martin Chase attached to executive produce. Cerar and Baszile will also executive produce alongside Reggie Rock Bythewood of Undisputed Cinema.
Universal Television secured the rights to Friends and Family in a competitive situation ahead of the novel’s October 6 release. The project is expected to be taken out to potential buyers soon.
Set in Northern California and loosely based on events from Baszile’s life, Good People follows Babs, a successful self-made interior designer, and Nora, her best friend from an old-money family. Their lives begin to unravel when an affair and a police confrontation involving Nora’s adopted Black son disrupt both families and the carefully constructed worlds they have built.
The project brings together creatives whose recent work spans literary adaptations, prestige television, documentary filmmaking and major studio productions.
Cerar most recently added another literary adaptation to her development slate with Drowning in Paper Flowers, the novel by E.L. Westbury she is developing for television with Jenna Bush Hager and Ben Spector’s Thousand Voices and Universal Global Television. The project was reported in August 2026. Cerar is also developing Birthright, a family drama that landed at Netflix in 2024 under her overall deal with Kapital Entertainment. Her previous series include Women of the Movement, which she created and showran for ABC, and Hulu’s Black Cake, adapted from Charmaine Wilkerson’s novel.
Prince-Bythewood’s next major feature is Children of Blood and Bone, her adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling fantasy novel. The film is scheduled for theatrical release on January 15, 2027. She and Reggie Rock Bythewood are also executive producers of Netflix’s A Different World sequel series, which premiered September 24, 2026, returning viewers to Hillman College with a new generation of students and familiar faces from the original sitcom.
Through Undisputed Cinema, the couple is also developing Cannon Street All-Stars, a feature about the 1955 all-Black Little League team from Charleston, South Carolina, that was excluded from competing against white teams. The project is in development with OMG Entertainment and Unanimous Media, with Prince-Bythewood attached to direct and write the screenplay.
Chase continues her partnership with Universal Television through Martin Chase Productions, which operates under a first-look deal with the studio. She is an executive producer on Peacock’s Before I Let Go, the adaptation of Kennedy Ryan’s novel that received a series order in September 2026. Her recent producing credits also include the CBS drama The Equalizer and the HBO documentary Being Mary Tyler Moore.
Blige is expanding her film and television work through Blue Butterfly Productions. In 2026, she extended her partnership with Lifetime through a three-picture deal for original movies inspired by her music. The first, Mary J. Blige Presents Be Happy, premiered in February, with Blige executive producing alongside her production partners. She also executive produced the 2024 film Rob Peace, in which she starred.
For Baszile, Good People follows a new chapter in her work as a filmmaker. Her first feature documentary, Harvest, co-directed with Hyacinth Parker, premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. The film follows fourth-generation Black farmers in Louisiana working to sustain their family farm amid financial, environmental and operational challenges. It is slated for PBS’s Independent Lens next year. Baszile and Parker are also developing a feature based on their short film Black Girl in Paris.
Baszile’s debut novel, Queen Sugar, was adapted into the OWN drama created and executive produced by Ava DuVernay, with Oprah Winfrey also executive producing. The series ran for seven seasons, from 2016 to 2022.
Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, will serve as the studio on Good People. The project remains in development, with no network or streaming home announced.