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'Moonlight' director Barry Jenkins heads to Amazon for 'The Underground Railroad'

Jenkins' film 'Moonlight,' which was praised for depicting stories not often seen in movies, won the Oscar best picture award for 2017. His next project promises to bring a similarly seldom-told story to the small screen.

On the heels of an Oscar win for "Moonlight," director Barry Jenkins is turning his attention to the small screen for聽an Amazon TV adaptation of the acclaimed novel 鈥淭he Underground Railroad.鈥�

Colson Whitehead's 2016 novel聽depicts the life of Cora, an African-American slave who decides to attempt to travel to freedom via the Underground Railroad, which in Mr. Whitehead鈥檚 novel is a real system of trains. The book won the National Book Award for fiction.聽

, Mr. Jenkins is set to both direct and write the TV series based on Whitehead鈥檚 work. 鈥淢oonlight鈥� was the second feature film that Jenkins directed and he has branched out into television before now, helming an episode of the Netflix series 鈥淒ear White People,鈥� which is set to debut on April 28.

Amazon's deal with Jenkins, so soon after he earned one of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' top awards, is further evidence that small-screen content providers like聽Amazon, Netflix, and HBO can reel in A-list names with big-time clout. Jenkins, who is known for taking risks in terms of selecting projects that break from traditional storyline templates and subject matter, praised Amazon for its investment in the "Underground Railroad."

鈥淧reserving the sweep and grandeur of a story like this requires bold, innovative thinking and in Amazon we鈥檝e found a partner whose reverence for storytelling and freeness of form is wholly in line with our vision,鈥� he said, according to Variety.

Jenkins鈥檚 movie 鈥淢oonlight鈥� was praised for bringing to the big screen stories and characters that critics say are seldom depicted there. 鈥淭he story of a young boy growing up poor in Liberty City, with a mom addicted to crack and a repressed attraction to other boys, is remarkable not only for its subject matter but for its lush visual palate and dreamlike aesthetic,鈥� wrote. 鈥淎s America emerges from a year that saw frequent headlines about young black men killed by police, and from a month in which the shift in power has many fearing for their rights, audiences have found profound urgency in 鈥楳oonlight.鈥� 鈥�

Ms. Berman suggested to Jenkins during an interview that 鈥渋t seems like one of the reasons the movie has caught on so much is that many people have an opportunity to see themselves in a way that maybe they鈥檝e never been able to walk into a movie theater or turn on a TV and see鈥� and Jenkins told her, 鈥淚 get these messages from total strangers all the time, saying just that. They never thought that they would walk into a theater and, as you said, see themselves onscreen.鈥澛�

And following the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, in which only white actors were nominated for all the Academy Awards acting prizes two years in a row, the 2017 Oscars included the movies 鈥淢oonlight,鈥� 鈥淗idden Figures,鈥� and 鈥淔ences鈥� all being nominated for best picture, among various other prizes. 鈥淗idden Figures鈥� in particular also did very well financially and became the fourteenth-highest-grossing movie of 2016.

felt 鈥淗idden鈥� was also a good step forward in the story that it brought to the screen. 鈥淏y presenting black female characters as highly skilled scientists and mathematicians, the film is a refreshing change from historical dramas which often feature black characters purely as housemaids or slaves,鈥� Mr. Ahmed wrote.聽

Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Monitor that he was happy about the discussion surrounding the lack of past diversity but that the talk had to continue. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to keep this issue on the front burner,鈥� he said.