Rashid Johnson in the director’s chair

The New York-based artist Rashid Johnson—whose work, which often explores black history and the contemporary African American experience, has included video art, painting, sculpture and installation—will make his feature film directorial début with an adaptation of Richard Wright’s influential 1940 novel, Native Son. The book looks at the inexorable power of racism and class through the story of Bigger Thomas, a young African American man from a poor area of Chicago. The script adaptation, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks, is still in the works, and there are currently no additional details on the production schedule. Julia Wright and Malcolm Wright, Richard Wright’s daughter and grandson, will consult on the film. Native Son was first made into a movie in 1951 in Argentina, starring Wright himself.