Kerry Washington Teams with Warner Bros. For Film Adaption of Brit Bennett’s Debut Novel About a Big Secret In a Small Black Community, ‘The Mothers’

John Shearer/Getty Images; Riverhead Books
Kerry Washington

Brit Bennett’s debut novel centers on a big secret in a small black community in Southern California.

Warner Bros. has optioned Brit Bennett’s debut novel The Mothers, with Kerry Washington producing under the Simpson Street Banner.

Bennett also will write the script for the project based on her novel, which was published in October by Riverhead, a division of Penguin.

The New York Times best-seller is set in a black community in a small suburban Southern California town where a big secret rocks the lives of several of its residents. The story explores young love, friendship and loss through a story centered on Nadia, a teen who, while grieving after her mother’s suicide, starts a relationship with Luke, the pastor’s son, and becomes pregnant. The choice she makes not only affects her own life and relationships for decades to come but the lives of Luke and Nadia’s best friend, Aubrey.

Washington will produce with Natalie Krinsky, who wrote the YA adaptation of I’ll Give You the Sun for Warner Bros. She brought The Mothers to Warner Bros. and Simpson Street. Krinsky also is currently adapting In a Dark, Dark Wood for New Line.

Simpson Street’s first production, HBO’s Confirmation (which starred Washington and earned her Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her portrayal of Anita Hill) received an Emmy nomination for best movie made for TV. The Mothers will be Simpson Street’s first feature project for Warner Bros.

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SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter – Rebecca Ford