Danielle Deadwyler to Star in and Produce 'The Street' Film Based on Novel by Ann Petry

Danielle Deadwyler will act and produce a film based on Ann Petry's 1964 novel The Street. The Street recounts, according to Variety, "the harrowing story of Lutie Johnson, a young Black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s." Deadwyler will not only feature in the upcoming film, but will also produce it alongside Michael Sherman and Alix Madigan. Gina Atwater will write the script and serve as the executive producer.

“Ann Petry’s The Street has quaked my understanding of motherhood, Black and American family life experiences on how to just get by (historically), and the festering emotions that seed alongside the wilted optimism and dark hope of the American Dream,” Deadwyler shared. “The Street is essential to American literature. It was evident upon its marvelous critically acclaimed debut; and, now, with this steadfast and dynamic collaboration with Alix, Michael, Gina, myself and the Petry estate, we hope to rumble the film landscape with an adaptation of her evergreen tale of the lengths to which one mother, one woman is stretched for self, family and the costs of survival.”

The star is currently starring in “The Woman in the Yard” out in theaters.