The Hollywood Reporter has brought word that Legendary’s film adaptation of the graphic novel Prince of Cats has found its director in Oscar-winning writer/director Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman).
RELATED: Lakeith Stanfield To Star in Prince Of Cats Adaptation for Legendary
Producer and writer Selwyn Sefyu Hinds will be adapting Ron Wimberly’s graphic novel, a stylized re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The story is told from Tybalt’s perspective, he and his fellow Capulets navigate Brooklyn’s hip-hop scene in the 1980s, a world filled with music and swordfights with their Montague rivals. Initially published by DC’s Vertigo imprint, Prince of Cats is currently published by Image Comics.
Hinds has recently adapted author Nnedi Okorafo’s post-apocalyptic novel Who Fears Death for HBO, as well as William & Ellen Craft’s runaway slave account Running A Thousand Miles For Freedom.
The project acts as the perfect fit for the Oscar-winning filmmaker who is a proud New Yorker and has set and filmed numerous of his movies in various neighborhoods in the Big Apple, namely She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever and Crooklyn.
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Lakeith Stanfield, the breakout star from Sorry to Bother You and Atlanta, was attached to star in the adaptation as Tybalt last July, but the latest news clarifies that the actor, who will next be seen in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, is no longer attached to the project.
Prince of Cats was first brought to Legendary by Jon Silk, the Executive VP of Production. The film will be produced by Janet and Kate Zucker of Zucker Productions.
(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)
