Winfrey eyeing ‘Paradise’ miniseries

By Cynthia Littleton

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo
Films has settled on Toni Morrison’s 1998 novel “Paradise” as
its next TV movie adaptation for ABC, sources said.

They stressed that deals are still in the process of being
hammered out for the principals on the project, which is eyed
as a four-hour miniseries. Darnell Martin is attached to pen
the screenplay adaptation as well as to direct, they added;
earlier this year, she directed Halle Berry in ABC’s
Emmy-nominated TV movie “Oprah Winfrey Presents: Their Eyes
Were Watching God.”

“Paradise,” the first novel Morrison published after
winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, revolves around
the murder of several woman by a group of black men from a
small town of Ruby, Okla. That story line is set in 1976, but
the novel goes back in time more than 100 years to trace the
turbulent history of the town and its predominantly black
population.

Reps for ABC and Harpo Films could not be reached for
comment during the weekend.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter