Walden Media has preemptively acquired N.K. Jemisin’s bestselling “The Great Cities” duology, “The City We Became” and “The World We Make,” with the intention to develop both books into an ongoing series.
“The City We Became” is set in an alternate version of the world, where major cities like New York City become sentient through human avatars. After the avatar of New York falls into a supernatural coma and vanishes, a group of five new avatars representing New York’s boroughs come together to fight their common enemy and save New York — and, potentially, the world.
The collection marks Jemisin’s first books after her “Broken Earth” Trilogy, which comprised 2015’s “The Fifth Season,” 2016’s “The Obelisk Gate” and 2017’s “The Stone Sky.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to take on N.K. Jemisin’s immersive, diverse and utterly enthralling tale about found family and the aching desire to be part of a community,” said Naia Cucukov, executive VP of development and production at Walden Media. “We’ve been huge fans of N.K.’s work for years, and we see this as a cornerstone project for Walden’s mission to work with transformative and inspirational voices in culture.”
The project will be produced and co-financed by Walden Media and will be overseen by Cucukov along with VP of television Jennifer Preston Bosari. Cucukov and Bosari will executive produce the series along with Walden Media CEO Frank Smith. The deal was negotiated by Hotchkiss Daily & Associates of behalf The Knight Agency.
Walden Media is currently in post-production on Apple TV+’s limited series “Manhunt.” The drama focuses on the hunt for Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Also produced by Walden is “Finch” starring Tom Hanks for Apple TV+, “Rumble” for Paramount+ and Netflix’s award-winning series “The Baby-Sitters Club,” which won the inaugural Children and Family Emmy Award for best series.