Oscar and Emmy award winner Mahershala Ali’s The Plot has been snagged by Disney’s Onyx Collective after a multiple studio bidding war. The limited series will be headed to Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories. The New York Times bestseller, ‘The Plot,’ has been the buzz for readers, writers, directors and actors alike for its compelling tale.
‘The Plot’ by Jean Hanff Korelitz is the tale of Jake Bonner, a failed writer who teaches at a third-rate MFA program. One day, one of his students, Evan, tells him about a book he’s working on with a great plot. Later, Jake learns that Evan died without writing his book. Years later, Jake ends up becoming a bestselling author based on the plot of that book. However, he starts receiving anonymous messages from someone who knows his secret. In this thriller and book-within-a-book, Jake must uncover the truth behind the plot of his own book."
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Mahershala Ali will be executive producing with his partners Mimi Valdés and Amatus Karim Ali under their Know Wonder (Swan Song) production company. “Hollywood is still not greenlighting enough projects with multidimensional Black characters, stories that simply focus on our humanity. The rarity of a straight-to-series order, especially for BIPOC projects, is not lost on us,” said Valdés. “We are beyond humbled to work with such an amazing team of collaborators to bring this incredible book to life.”
Executive producer and showrunner Abby Ajayi (How to Get Away with Murder), who will be adapting the thriller, tells Deadline, “I’m thrilled to be adapting Jean’s brilliantly compelling and thrilling novel, which hooked me from its opening pages. From the start, I knew that the peerless Mahershala Ali would be the perfect Jake. I’m excited by the nuance, the humanity and the complexity he’ll bring to the role,” Ajayi said. “Going on this journey with Layne, Kristen and the teams at Know Wonder and Endeavor Content has been a dream. The icing on the cake is finding our home with Tara Duncan at Onyx.”
“I was captivated with Hanff Korelitz’s book, ‘The Plot’ and Abby’s distinct point of view reinvents the story in a way that spoke to me and our mission at Onyx Collective. There are so many interesting angles and nuances, that having the creative genius that is Mahershala Ali at the center of this mystery, is just a dream,” said Tara Duncan, president of Freeform and Onyx Collective. “Kristen and Layne have done a phenomenal job bringing this team together and I could not be more proud to work alongside them and Endeavor Content to bring this incredible series to our global audience.”
A bidding war ensued for the novelist’s story, ‘You Should Have Known,’ which ultimately was adapted by David E. Kelley titled The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, Donald Sutherland and Lily Rabe. The modern twist on a classic whodunnit tale concerns a wealthy New York therapist whose life gets turned upside down after she and her family get involved with a murder case. Jean Hanff Korelitz appears to be on a roll. Her upcoming novel ‘The Latecomer’ could be on the menu next.
While we impatiently wait for The Plot, we can look forward to Mahershala Ali starring in the Marvel reboot, Blade.
