Osun Group is in development on a TV adaptation of Yrsa Daley-Ward’s critically acclaimed debut fiction novel The Catch.
The Catch is a “genre-defying supernatural thriller exploring sisterhood, identity, and the radical act of choosing yourself.”
The series marks Daley-Ward’s debut as a television screenwriter
Sheila Nortley, Head of Drama at Osun Group, has optioned the novel, marking the company’s first book-to-screen acquisition and its first scripted project to be announced from a growing development slate. The adaptation is in early development as returning series. Nortley and Daley-Ward first worked together in 2011 on the indie feature David is Dying.
The Catch follows estranged twin sisters Clara and Dempsey, whose lives are upended when Clara spots a woman in London who looks exactly like their long-vanished mother – unchanged by time and unburdened by motherhood. Clara, a celebrity author craving validation, is convinced this is their mother returned, while the reclusive Dempsey suspects a con. As the sisters collide over the stranger’s identity, they are propelled toward a reckoning that threatens their very existence and forces them to confront the wounds of their past. With kaleidoscopic imagination, Daley-Ward conjures a multiverse of daughterhood, longing, and self-determination, offering a bold, lyrical exploration of the sacrifices Black women make to live and create with impunity – and daring to ask, “How can it ever, ever be a crime to choose yourself?”
Yrsa Daley-Ward said: “The Catch asks, what if the person you fear most and the person you long for most were the same? I’ve often wondered what it would be like to meet my mother again, not as she was, but as I am. The TV adaptation takes that unsettling question and spins it into an edgy, psychological suspense about family, obsession, and the terror of recognition.”
Sheila Nortley, Head of Drama, Osun Group said: “The Catch is both vast and otherworldly, yet so deeply intimate and tragically human. Yrsa’s storytelling has a way of getting under the skin and holding a mirror up to our most uncomfortable truths. To have such a bold and inventive novel as our first scripted adaptation at Osun Group is both an honour and a statement of intent. I can’t wait to bring it to the screen.”
Yrsa Daley-Ward, Sheila Nortley and Luti Fagbenle are Executive Producers. Osun Group is in the process of attaching a showrunner, director and on-screen talent.
Osun Group was founded by Luti Fagbenle (Maxxx, White Man Walking, Blue Therapy). Osun’s drama slate is led by Executive Producer and Head of Drama Sheila Nortley (Supacell, Stay Close). She is joined by Head of Development Tara Ayeni (Maxxx) and Head of Unscripted Georgia Cassidy (Blue Therapy).
Yrsa Daley-Ward photo: Joshua M Shelton
Jon Creamer
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