Sister has won the rights to develop a TV series based on best-selling author James McBride’s Deacon King Kong.

The critically acclaimed novel has just been named as the latest Oprah’s Book Club selection.

Author McBride and Brian Taylor will serve as executive producers alongside Sister’s Carolyn Strauss and Kate Fenske, with Jonah Disend for Complementary Colors set as a producer. McBride will pen the adaptation.

“I’m delighted that Deacon King Kong has found a home with the Sisters. They are big lifters of story, and big believers in the common humanity which makes stories human and worth doing. I’m so excited about the creative possibilities that lie ahead,” said McBride.

“James McBride is one of America’s greats. His characters are vibrant and alive and, his themes – that community, faith and love are contagious – are powerful and relevant, particularly today. We all feel privileged to bring Deacon King Kong to the screen,” said Sister CEO, Stacey Snider.

Deacon King Kong takes place in September 1969 when a fumbling, comical old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. To uncover the causes and consequences of this burst of violence, Deacon King Kong takes the reader through life in the Cause Houses housing projects, inspired by the Red Hook housing projects where McBride grew up.

Deacon King Kong is McBride’s first novel since winning the National Book Award for The Good Lord Bird. His 1995 memoir, The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, topped the New York Times best-seller list for two years, sold millions of copies worldwide, and is considered a literary classic, read in classrooms, book clubs, and universities across America. His best-selling novel, Miracle at St. Anna, was adapted into a film by Spike Lee, while Showtime is set to premiere a limited series based on The Good Lord Bird on 9 Auguststarring Ethan Hawke, Joshua Caleb Johnson, and Daveed Diggs.

McBride is represented by Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. The deal was negotiated on behalf of McBride and Taylor by attorney Kirk Schenck.