Amazon has signed to develop the series by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins, it announced on Monday. The limited series is based on a novel by Colson Whitehead of the same name.
Jenkins won the Academy award this year for the film 'Moonlight'. According to Jenkins, "The Underground Railroad" is a groundbreaking work that pays respect to the nation's history while using the form to explore it in a thoughtful and original way.
The Underground Railroad is about Cora who escapes from a Georgia plantation for the rumoured Underground Railroad. She discovers that the roailroad is real with a network of tracks and tunnels under the South.
The novel has sold over 825,000 copies in the United States and has won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and was a New York Times bestseller.
The one-hour drama series is still under development and will be produced by Pastel Productions and Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment which had also backed "Moonlight".
Barry Jenkins made his debut as a director with the indie 'Medicine for Melancholy' and after directing shorts like 'Chlorophyl' and the TV series 'Futurestates' before the Academy award winning 'Moonlight' (2016).