The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) has given a straight-to-series order to a new drama from Moonlight co-writer and executive producer Tarell Alvin McCraney with Michael B. Jordan also executive producing.
Marking his first television series, McCraney will create, write, and executive produce the new coming-of-age drama, with Mike Kelley and Melissa Loy also serving as executive producers under their Page Fright production banner. Jordan will executive produce through his Outlier Productions.
The series, which is yet to be titled, will be produced for OWN by Page Fright and Outlier Productions in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television. It follows a 14-year-old prodigy from the projects haunted by the death of his closest friend who must choose between the streets that raised him or the higher education that may offer him a way out. Set in South Florida at the end of the Obama era, the series was inspired by events in McCraney’s own life.
“I wanted to explore the pivotal steps towards adulthood and identity, the ones we take when we think or feel we have no other choice,” McCraney said.
McCraney’s move into television comes after Jenkins decided to dip his toes in the TV waters by writing and directing a one-hour drama series about the Underground Railroad for Amazon. That series will be based on Colson Whitehead’s best-selling book, “The Underground Railroad.” The book was an Oprah’s Book Club 2016 selection, New York Times bestseller, and the winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction.
