One of our anticipated titles of 2021 is headed to the big screen!

Deadline reports that Namina Forna’s The Gilded Ones, which was released earlier in February in the US and UK, will be adapted into a film by Makeready. Brad Weston, Negin Salmasi, and Misha Green — who was the showrunner for Lovecraft Country — will be producing the film.

Forna herself is set to write the script. She was a finalist of the NBC/Universal Writers on the Verge program, part of the top 50 for the Nicholl Fellowship, an international screenwriting competition administered by the folks who run the Oscars, and part of the top 10 in her category at the Austin Fellowship Screenwriting Competition.

The Gilded Ones is the first book in a planned trilogy titled the Deathless series. The book is a feminist, West African-inspired fantasy that follows the journey of a young girl to self-empowerment. Here’s a summary of the book from its publisher:

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity—and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki—near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be—not even Deka herself.

Definitely great movie material! And you bet we’ll be bringing you all the updates about the adaptation as soon as we learn about them.