‘Friends and Family’ Novel By ‘Queen Sugar’ Author Gets Series Adaptation At Universal TV From Mary J. Blige, Marissa Jo Cerar & Gina Prince-Bythewood

Universal Television is developing Good People, a drama series based on Friends and Family, the second novel by Queen Sugar author Natalie Baszile.

Marissa Jo Cerar (Black Cake) will write the adaptation, with Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard) set to direct the potential pilot and Mary J. Blige and Debra Martin Chase attached to executive produce.

Universal Television landed the rights to Friends and Family in a competitive situation ahead of the book’s Oct. 6 release.

Set in Northern California, the story is loosely based on real events from Baszile’s life. It follows Babs, a successful self-made interior designer, and her old money best friend, Nora. Their world cracks open when a series of events, including an affair and a police confrontation involving Nora’s adopted Black son, disrupts the stability of both families and their carefully constructed lives.

Cerar and Baszile executive produce alongside Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood of Undisputed Cinema, Debra Martin Chase for Martin Chase Productions, and Mary J. Blige via Blue Butterfly Productions. Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, is the studio. The project is expected to be taken out to buyers soon.

Friends and Family marks Baszile’s followup novel to the 2014 Queen Sugar which was turned into the 2016 OWN series created/executive produced by Ava DuVernay and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey.

“The way she created a narrative about best friendship to be the lens through which to examine loyalty, allyship, class, and the inner lives of women of a certain age was brilliant,” said Pamela Dorman, SVP
and Publisher, and Seema Mahanian, Executive Editor at Pamela Dorman Books. “It’s about the layers of a long marriage, the pain and joy of being a parent, and the ways that society affects the way we move through the world.”

Cerar began her career as a writer-producer on 13 Reasons Why, Shots Fired and The Handmaid’s Tale. She is an NAACP Image Award and two-time Humanitas Prize-winning writer for the two series she created and showran, Women of the Movement and Black Cake. Cerar is repped by Heroes and Villains Entertainment and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman.

Prince-Bythewood, who collaborated with Cerar on Women of the Movement, has written and/or directed films including Love & Basketball, The Old Guard and The Woman King. Her TV credits also include Genius: MLK/X, Shots Fired and A Different World. She most recently co-wrote and directed Children of Blood and Bone, a fantasy epic based on the bestselling trilogy, set for theatrical release in January. Prince-Bythewood is repped by CAA and Del Shaw Moonves.

Rock Bythewood, who is executive producing Netflix’s A Different World sequel series and Children of Blood and Bone, repped by CAA.

The project falls under Chase’s Martin Chase Productions’ first-look deal with Universal Television. Most recently, she executive produced the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Being Mary Tyler Moore and The Equalizer. The latest Cheetah Girls installment Next Gen recently wrapped production in South Africa and will air next year. She’s repped by CAA and Del Shaw Moonves.

Blige is a nine-time Grammy award winner and two-time Oscar nominee. Her first ever Las Vegas residency, “Mary J. Blige: My Life, My Story: The Las Vegas Residency,” runs through February. Blige, who starred in Power Book II: Ghost, is repped by IAG, Laffitte Management Group and LaPolt Law.

Baszile co-wrote and co-directed a short film Black Girl in Paris, which is being developed into a feature film. She debuted her first documentary feature, Harvest, at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. She is repped by Heroes and Villains Entertainment and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman.