Television is adding more #BlackGirlMagic in the near future, as new reports reveal that a TV series to the 2016 film Hidden Figures is in development at National Geographic. In the report by Variety, Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping are producing the Nat Geo series. Chernin and Topping also directed the film, which was nominated for three Academy Awards last year. There has been no reported casting for the series as it is in the very early development stages.
Hidden Figures is the true story of three Black women who worked at, and played a major role in NASA’s early development of their space program. Mary Jackson, Katherine G. Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan were instrumental in the project that led to the 1969 Apollo moon landing, an empowering story that prior to the production of the film was unknown to many people.
Non-Fiction writer Margot Lee Shetterly published the New York Times Best Selling book about the mathematicians in early 2016 that soon led to the production of the film which starred Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae, and Octavia Spencer.
The Hidden Figures film earned more than $230 million at the box office with a $25 million budget, a relatively low cost for a film that turned out so successful. Given the accuracy of the story told, and the interest it sparked in movie watchers, it seems right up Nat Geo’s ally to move forward with production of the TV series. Because its still in the early stages, the series is not yet set in stone.
