Sterling K. Brown, Da’Vine Joy Randolph & Winston Duke In ‘The Trees’

EXCLUSIVE: In one of the biggest star power packages to hit the TV marketplace in awhile, Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown, Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Black Panther‘s Winston Duke are in talks to lead a limited series based on Percival Everett’s acclaimed 2022 novel The Trees. Marcus Gardley (The Chi) is writing the adaptation, which has sparked a bidding war, sources tell Deadline.

Gardley is executive producing alongside Brown and Abby Victor for Indian Meadows, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and Katie Zucker via Mad Massive Entertainment and Everett. UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, is the studio.

Everett’s The Trees is a fast-paced thriller that tackles racism and police violence. It opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.

The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. As the bodies pile up, the MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for years, uncovering a history that refuses to be buried.

The roles have not been confirmed but Sterling and Duke are believed to be playing the detectives.

The Trees reunite Brown and Hinds following their recent collaboration on Washington Black. Hinds is creator, showrunner and executive producer and Brown star and executive producer of the constrained series, an adaptation of Esi Edugyan’s novel of the same name, which debuted on Hulu last week.

Brown, an Oscar nominee for American Fiction, is a three-time Emmy winner, including for his roles in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson and This Is Us. He is a double nominee this year for his fresh series with This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman, Hulu’s Paradise, which he headlines and executive produces — for Outstanding Lead Actor In a Drama Series and Outstanding Drama Series. That brings his Emmy nomination total to 12. Brown is repped by Jennifer Wiley-Moxley of JWM Entertainment Group, CAA and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.

An Oscar winner for The Holdovers, Randolph is also known for starring opposite Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name and for her Emmy-nominated role on Hulu’s Only Murders In the Building. Her upcoming movies include Eternity and The Gallerist. She is represented by CAA and Fox Rothschild.

Duke rose to stardom with his MCU role as M’Baku, which he originated in Black Panther and has reprised in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Other prominent film credits include The Fall Guy, Jordan Peele’s Us, Netflix’s Spencer Confidential as well as Sony Picture Classics’ Nine Days, which he headlined and executive produced. Duke is repped by CAA, M88 and attorney John Meigs.

Everett’s The Trees was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and won the 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, among other accolades. Everett is repped by CAA and Melanie Jackson Agency.

Gardley co-wrote the 2023 feature adaptation of The Color Purple. His series credits also include NOS4A2, Maid and Foundation. He is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer.

Hinds served as a writer/producer on Jordan Peele’s reboot of The Twilight Zone. He has multiple films in development, including Prince Of Cats, an adaptation of Ronald Wimberly’s graphic novel, at Legendary; and 1000 Miles, based on the memoir Running A Thousand Miles For Freedom by William and Ellen Craft. Under his overall deal at UCP, he also is developing a TV series based on Usher’s album Confessions. He is repped by CAA, Entertainment 360, and Del Shaw Moonves.