In Blackout, under the night’s sky and the summer heat of New York City, love glimmers in the darkness as it meets the reader at every intricacy. It’s an introspective novel of how the intensities of a citywide blackout can be ironically assuaged by human connection. Now, the story’s six-interlinked tales of young Black love are no longer just existing in the paperback. Under Netflix‘s latest order, the six-part anthology is making its way to streamer’s silver screen under the production of Barack and Michelle Obama‘s Higher Ground Banner and Temple Hill.
According to sources of The Hollywood Reporter, the adaptation features both a film and a television “event” with the six enthralling stories being divvyed between the two. There’s the journey of an embittered ex-couple; the search for a lost photograph; a pair of bestfriends surrounded by love stories in the New York Public Library; a love triangle on a tour bus; and the classic debate that forges a connection between two complete strangers. The best-selling YA writers who lend their pen to stories of the forthcoming film and TV project are Dhonielle Clayton (Tiny Pretty Things), Tiffany D. Jackson (Allegedly), Nic Stone (Dear Martin), Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give), Ashley Woodfolk (The Beauty that Remains) and Nicola Yoon (Everything, Everything).
Blackout is the Obamas’ latest project that Netflix has greenlit since the former first couple inked their production deal with the streaming giant in 2018. The power pair’s recent production alongside Temple Hill, Fatherhood, received critical rave as Kevin Hart navigated new cinematic range in a story of unbridled paternal love. And most recently, they also premiered We The People, a 10-episode animation series remixing civics curricula into three-minute music videos that are poised to enlighten the youth on the pulse that lies within the people.
