R.O. Kwan’s excellent novel The Incendiaries is being adapted for TV by red-hot filmmaker Kogonada, who’s achieved a lot of acclaim for his meditative work on movies like Columbus and After Yang. The series is being written by Lisa Randolph, who is best known for her work on Jessica Jones.
The Incendiaries follows a young couple in love with each other but on very different paths of spiritual belief. One is slowly disentangling themselves from Christian faith they grew up in while the other finds themself on a path to religious fanaticism. The story explores how faith intertwines with intimacy, for better or worse.
“I spent ten years writing The Incendiaries, after which it was all the more heartening that the book was received as a national bestseller from its first week of publication and named a best book of the year by over forty publications,” Kwon wrote in a statement to Deadline. “Now, I’m thrilled that The Incendiaries has found its way to a team I’m so excited about: I deeply admire FilmNation’s work and am utterly delighted by Lisa Randolph’s brilliant scripts, which are both so true to the novel and tell its story in new ways I couldn’t have imagined. I’ve loved and rewatched Kogonada’s work for years.”
The project is currently being shopped around but with a team like this, it should find a home soon. It’s one to keep an eye on.