‘Barracoon’ Based On Book In Works As Limited TV Series By Common & Lionsgate
Lionsgate and Common’s Freedom Road Productions have acquired the rights to Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’, the critically praised, recently discovered book by 20th century writer Zora Neale Hurston, to develop as a limited television event series.
Barracoon centers on 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis, the last known survivor of the Middle Passage who was brought to America in 1927. The book, which was unpublished until earlier this year, chronicles Cudjo’s time of slavery and the profound complexities of reconstruction and freedom after the Atlantic slave trade was abolished.
This is the second project coming out of Lionsgate and Freedom Road’s TV deal. Lionsgate and Freedom Road are already developing the Saturday Night Knife and Gun Club TV adaptation starring and produced by Common.
Hurston also is the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God.
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