Alexandre Dumas, painting by Olivier Pichat
Director Cary Fukunaga is teaming with John Legend and his Get Lifted Film Co. partner Mike Jackson to adapt and helm a Sony big-screen version of “The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and The Real Count of Monte Cristo.”
Get Lifted Film Co. optioned the Pulitzer-winning 2012 biography by Tom Reiss , which chronicles the life and adventures of French Revolution-era General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas.
Jackson and Ty Stiklorius will produce the film with Fukunaga’s Parliament of Owls. Legend, his manager Troy Carter and Sony’s Josh Bratman will serve as executive producers. “Cary’s exceptional talent as a writer-director will bring to life all of the action and drama that have made The Black Count such a compelling read,” Michael De Luca, who is overseeing the picture for Sony told Deadline earlier this week. “He’s got a great take on the material and we’re thrilled to be working with him, John, Thais, Troy and Mike,” added the Columbia Pictures president of production.
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Born to a French nobleman and an enslaved African woman, Dumas became the highest-ranking person of color to ever serve in any European army. A favorite of Napoleon for a time, Dumas was also the first non-white to become a brigadier general in the French military. Dumas’ exploits were used as the basis for the novels of his son Alexandre Dumas. Better known today than his father, the younger Dumas wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count Of Monte Cristo.
Source: deadline.com
