Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh is stepping behind the camera for her next big project.
According to Deadline, Andoah is set executive-produce a film adaption of Vanessa Riley’s recent novel Island Queen. The book was optioned by acclaimed film and television director Julie Anne Robinson via her U.K.-based production company, Longboat Pictures. Like the book, Island Queen will be based on the true story of Dorothy “Doll” Kirwan Thomas, a woman who was born enslaved but bought her freedom, and became one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the early 1800s Caribbean. Casting details have yet to be announced.
In other news, the premiere dates for ABC’s new series The Wonder Years and Queens have been unveiled. The Wonder Years, featuring Don Cheadle as the narrator, will air Wednesday, September 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET. Unlike the original a reboot of the 1980s-early 1990s ABC family comedy, which followed Fred Savage, the new Wonder Years focuses on a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama during the 1960s. Meanwhile Queens, which stars Brandy, Eve, Naturi Naughton, and Nadine Velazquez as original members of the popular rap group Nasty [Women], will premiere Tuesday, October 19 at 10:01 p.m. ET.
Finally, OWN will premiere a two-part The Haves and the Have Nots cast reunion special on Tuesday, July 27 and Tuesday, August 3 at 8 p.m. ET. The special comes as the cast says goodbye to the series after eight seasons. Filmed in front of a live audience, the reunion will recap “all of the greatest moments, iconic scenes, and tumultuous relationships of OWN’s beloved number-one drama series.” Hosted by Egypt Sherrod, The Haves and the Have Nots cast reunion includes Tika Sumpter, Angela Robinson, Crystal Fox, Renée Lawless and Tyler Lepley, among others.
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