Regina King Will Direct ‘Bitter Root,’ a Comic Book Movie About Monster Hunters During the Harlem Renaissance

Regina King has found her next project. Fresh off her acclaimed directorial debut One Night in Miami, King has been tapped as the director for Bitter Root, Legendary’s feature adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel series about on a family of monster hunters living during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Deadline reports that Legendary has tapped Regina King to direct and produce the Bitter Root movie, based on the acclaimed Image Comics series created by David F. Walker, Sanford Greene, and Chuck Brown. Bryan Edward Hill is currently rewriting the script, which follows a family of monsters hunters during the Harlem Renaissance.

The project has been in development for around two years now, with Ryan Coogler stepping in to produce the film back in 2019. King will be producing alongside Coogler, Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian of Proximity Media. Meanwhile, Walker, Greene, Brown and Drapetomedia’s Sean Owolo will executive produce.

Before you bemoan the fact that the comic book movie has snapped up another promising young female director, check out the very cool premise of Bitter Root:

Set during the vibrant Harlem Renaissance of 1924, Bitter Root focuses on a fractured family of once-great monster hunters who must face an unimaginable evil that descends upon New York City. For generations, the Sangeryes have hunted and cured those infected by a supernatural force that feeds off the prejudice of the era, transforming human beings into hideous monsters. But their heyday has faded and with most of the family dead, and the surviving Sangeryes at odds between saving or killing these creatures, the remaining Sangeryes must overcome the wounds of the past in the hopes of thwarting the invasion.

Bitter Root has been described as “a sort of Get Out meets Blade, the Vampire Hunter,” per The Hollywood Reporter, which is a hell of an elevator pitch. You can see why the project would appeal to King, who is coming off a whirlwind awards-season campaign for One Night in Miami, her directorial debut which earned her DGA Award and NAACP Image Award nominations. It’s the kind of Black-led project that King has been passionate about tackling, and one that has a potential for a wider audience (it’s monster hunters, after all), with the added prestige of a critically acclaimed comic series. The Bitter Root comic was nominated for a 2019 Eisner Award for Best New Series and a 2019 Ringo award for Best Series. With King at the helm and Coogler producing, Bitter Root might be a sweet new monster movie.

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