FX takes plantation drama ‘Kindred’ to series with ‘Watchmen’ producer

Kindred

Disney-owned FX has ordered an adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s 1979 science fiction novel Kindred, with Watchmen’s Branden Jacobs-Jenkins attached as showrunner.

The eight-part show, which is being produced by FX Productions, follows a young Black woman and aspiring writer who uproots her life to relocate to LA.

However, she finds herself being violently pulled back and forth in time to a nineteenth-century plantation with which she and her family are surprisingly and intimately linked.

Showrunner Jacobs-Jenkins also serves as writer and executive produces with Courtney Lee-Mitchell (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain) and Ari Handel (One Strange Rock) of Protozoa Pictures.

Joe Weisberg (The Americans), Joel Fields (Fosse/Verdon), Ernestine Walker and Merrilee Heifetz are also attached, with Mallori Johnson, Micah Stock and Ryan Kwanten among the cast.

“Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has done a phenomenal job of adapting Kindred for FX and honoring the legacy and timeless value of Octavia Butler’s groundbreaking novel,” said Nick Grad, president of originals at FX.

“The pilot directed by Janicza Bravo is brilliant and we can’t wait to resume production with this incredibly talented and dedicated cast.”