BAFTA nominee Danielle Deadwyler (Till) is teaming with Alix Madigan and Michael Sherman to develop and produce The Street, a feature adaptation of the novel by Ann Petry, in which she’s set to star.
Also aboard the project is Gina Atwater, who will write the script and serve as executive producer.
Reissued in 2022, Petry’s 1946 debut novel was famously the first book by a Black woman to sell over one million copies. This is the harrowing story of young Black woman Lutie Johnson (Deadwyler) and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s.
In a statement accompanying the development announcement, Deadwyler said, “Ann Petry’s The Street has quaked my understanding of motherhood, Black and American family life experiences on how to just get by (historically), and the festering emotions that seed alongside the wilted optimism and dark hope of the American Dream.”
She called The Street “essential to American literature,” saying that this was “evident upon its marvelous critically acclaimed debut; and, now, with this steadfast and dynamic collaboration with Alix, Michael, Gina, myself and the Petry estate, we hope to rumble the film landscape with an adaptation of her evergreen tale of the lengths to which one mother, one woman is stretched for self, family and the costs of survival.”
Commented Madigan and Sherman, “We are inspired to be a part of bringing Ann Petry’s harrowing classic to life with Danielle and Gina and could not imagine better creative collaborators to partner with on this journey.”
Deadwyler is represented by Paradigm, Play Management, and Ziffren Brittenham.
