FX orders television pilot based on Octavia Butler's 'Kindred'

By Teddy Grant Published: March 9, 2021

FX orders television pilot based on Octavia Butler’s ‘Kindred’

ctavia Estelle Butler signing a copy of Fledgling after speaking and answering questions from the audience. The event was part of a promotional tour for the book. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.5)

TV network FX has ordered a pilot episode based on Octavia E. Butler’s book Kindred, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Courtney Lee-Mithcell will write the pilot will serve as an executive producer.

“Since my first encounter with the novel nearly two decades ago, there have been few, if any, books and even fewer authors who have meant as much to me as Kindred and Octavia Butler,” Jacobs-Jenkins to THR. “It has been the highlight and honor of my career thus far to try and finally bring this timeless story to life.”

Kindred tells the story of a young Black woman living in California in the 1970s who is transported to a slave plantation in the early 1800s and uncovers a horrifying connection between her family and a young white child she has to protect.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee-Mitchell bought the rights to the book in 2008 from Butler’s estate.

Kindred has sold more than 450,000 copies, according to Beacon Press.