Kerry Washington To Produce Adaptation Of Brit Bennett’s The Mothers For Warner Bros. Posted by Wilson Morales
March 10, 2017
Warner Bros. has optioned Brit Bennett’s debut novel and New York Times bestseller, THE MOTHERS to be produced by Kerry Washington (Scandal) under her Simpson Street Banner. THE MOTHERS, published in October 2016, is a surprising story about young love, friendship, a big secret in a small community and the things that ultimately haunt us most, Bennett will also write the script for the film adaptation.
It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother’s recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor’s son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it’s not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults and still living in debt to the choices they made that one seaside summer, caught in a love triangle they must carefully maneuver, and dogged by the constant, nagging question: What if they had chosen differently? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.
A few additional notes about the producing team for the film is highlighted below:
Kerry Washington (Producer)
· Simpson Street’s first production CONFIRMATION earned critical acclaim as well as an EMMY nomination for Best Movie made for Television. THE MOTHERS will be their first feature project for Warner Bros.
· Kerry Washington was most recently nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her portrayal of Anita Hill in HBO’s CONFIRMATION. She currently can be seen starring in the Shonda Rhimes hit show SCANDAL as Olivia Pope.
· Kerry Washington is repped by CAA, Katherine Atkinson at Washington Square Arts and Gretchen Rush
Natalie Krinsky (Producer)
· Natalie Krinsky, who also wrote the YA adaptation of I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN for Warner Bros., brought the book to Warner Bros. and Simpson Street. She is also currently adapting IN A DARK, DARK WOOD for New Line Cinema.
· Krinsky is repped by CAA, Gotham Group, and Dan Black at Greenberg Traurig
Brit Bennett (Executive Producer)
· Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan, where she won a Hopwood Award in Graduate Short Fiction as well as the 2014 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers.
Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Jezebel. She is one of the National Book Foundation’s 2016 5 Under 35 honorees.
· She is repped by Paradigm on behalf of Julia Kardon of Mary Evans Inc.
Julia Spiro and Courtney Freedman are overseeing the project for Warner Bros.
