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Barry Jenkins to direct adaption of Pulitzer Prize winner Underground Railroad

By Grant Butler

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Barry Jenkins, the director/screenwriter behind the Oscar-winning film Moonlight is set to get behind the camera again for Underground Railroad.

All 11 episode of the series, which will be featured on Amazon Prime, will be directed by Barry Jenkins. The series is based upon the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead. The book is not only a work of historical fiction through its depiction of slavery, but also strongly incorporates alternate history.

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The story is based on runaway slave Cora who runs away from the brutal life of her Georgia Plantation after encountering Caesar. Caesar tells her about the Underground Railroad and the two make their escape. In this case, the Underground Railroad is imagined as literal railroad.

Their journey is a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire, as the journey is extraordinarily risky. As the pair make their way to neighboring South Carolina, they must always keep an eye out for the slave catcher Ridgeway.

As has been noted, Amazon is a good fit for the series. It has previously featured The Man in the High Castle, another series based upon a best-selling alternate history novel. The series was both a critical and commercial success for the site.

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The book version of the story is also arguably the best known and most influential work of alternate history out there. The story features an alternate universe where the Nazis and their Axis allies won World War II and divided up the defeated United States.

Are you excited to see Barry Jenkins step behind the camera for Amazon? Sound off in the comments below!

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