Melina Matsoukas may be making her feature directorial debut. The Grammy Award-winning music and TV director is being sought as the director of Universal Pictures’ adaptation of Natalie C. Handerson’s debut novel, “City of Saints & Thieves,” Deadline reports. The bestselling book hit shelves less than a month ago.
“City of Saints & Thieves” focuses on Tina, “a girl who has been living on the streets of Kenya since her mother’s murder,” Deadline summarizes. “Recruited by a gang of orphans and street kids, Tina gets closer to exacting revenge for her mother’s death, but soon discovers that she may not have all the facts.”
Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street production company is in negotiations to produce along with Will Packer Productions. Washington is set to produce — and star — in another film adaptation of a book penned by a first-time female novelist, Aimee Molloy’s “The Perfect Mother.”
Best known for her collaborations with Beyoncé, including directing the music video for “Formation,” Matsoukas scored a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video for Rihanna’s “We Found Love.”
Matsoukas has directed four episodes of Issa Rae’s HBO comedy “Insecure.” She’s spoken about how helming music videos helped launch her career. “As a filmmaker, it was a great foray into this world where you could be experimental and you could learn,” she said. “It’s really the only genre in film where the director has a lot of control and you can kind of do anything. You could do something fashion oriented. You could do something super-political. You can tell a story or you can not. It’s a nice way to hone your skills and flex that muscle and also just be creative. I still love it.”
