Shondaland will soon extend the reach of its television empire. The Shonda Rhimes-run studio is developing a limited historical drama series with FX, with writer-director Dee Rees at the helm. The series will be based on Isabel Wilkerson’s 2010 book The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of America’s Great Migration, about the movement of around 6 million African Americans from the American south to the northern and western parts of the country from 1915 to 1970. The story is told through the perspectives of three characters who made the move in three different decades.
Between this, the psychic series, a pilot order for The Catch, a season two pickup for How To Get Away With Murder, and almost certain renewals for Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, Shondaland will soon own a lot more than just Thursday nights on ABC. Presumably, before too long we’ll be able to turn on our televisions at any given time and be able to find a Shondaland creation.
The television adaptation of Warmth Of Other Suns is still in early stages of development at ABC’s cable division ABC Signature, which is also where Shondaland’s psychic series is in early development. Rees, whose Bessie Smith biopic Bessie will premiere on HBO on May 16, is writing the adaptation and executive producing with Rhimes and Rhimes’s partner in television domination, Betsy Beers.