VANCOUVER — Thunderbird Entertainment announced the award-winning novel The Marrow Thieves by Métis author Cherie Dimaline will be adapted for television through a collaboration with TV writer and producer Jennica Harper.
The series will be produced by Thunderbird Entertainment’s scripted division with Dimaline and Harper set to executive produce alongside Alexandra Raffé and Ivan Fecan, who is Thunderbird’s executive chair of the board.
“The Marrow Thieves is a chilling and insightful story that challenges us to think about our common humanity, and the type of world we want to live in. We are honoured to work with Cherie and Jennica in order to transform this incredible story into a series that will resonate with audiences around the world when it debuts,” Fecan said in a news release Thursday announcing the collaboration.
The Marrow Thieves is set in a dystopian future where Earth has been ravaged by climate change. Wanted for their bone marrow, which contains the lost ability to dream, North American Indigenous people are being hunted by government recruiters and used as unwilling donors. The story centres on Frenchie, a highly resourceful Indigenous teenager, and his companions, who together embark on a journey to the old lands in the hopes of surviving and reuniting with loved ones.
Dimaline’s novel won the Governor General’s Award for English-language children’s literature and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers in 2017, the same year it was named a Native American Library Association Honor Book. Last year, The Marrow Thieves won the Sunburst Award, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, and the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature. The Marrow Thieves has also been a finalist for the Trillium Book Award and the Ontario Library Association’s White Pine Award. Singer Jully Black represented the book on CBC’s 2018 Canada Reads, and it was later recognized as the bestselling Canadian book by CBC Books that same year. The Marrow Thieves has been a Canadian bestseller for more than a year and continues to hold a spot on the Globe and Mail Canadian fiction list, nearly two years after publication.
Harper is a Vancouver-based TV writer and producer, whose background includes work on the current CTV hit crime drama Cardinal, ABC summer thriller Somewhere Between, and popular crime drama Motive, among others. Most recently, she served as the co-creator, writer and showrunner on the comedy Jann, a fictitious take on the life of Jann Arden, which will premiere later this year. She has been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award and is the recipient of both a WGC Award for Screenwriting and a Leo Award.
“The Marrow Thieves is an important narrative for the Indigenous community, which is why it was essential to work with a team who will honour its messages while bringing it to life. Thunderbird and Jennica are dedicated to creating an adaptation that embodies how this book can positively impact our perspectives and I am happy to work alongside their dynamic team to share this story with a larger audience,” Dimaline said.
