Stacey Abrams’ legal thriller ‘While Justice Sleeps’ set for TV adaptation; Tasha Smith tapped to direct ‘Our Kind of People’; and more

Stacey Abrams, the woman credited with helping Joe Biden win the Presidential election by boosting the voting turnout in Georgia, will have her latest novel turned into a TV series.

According to Deadline, NBCU’s Working Title Television has acquired the rights to Abrams’ legal thriller While Justice Sleeps. The book follows Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk who is given legal guardianship and power of attorney over a controversial Supreme Court justice. Details on the series have yet to be revealed.

In other news, actress-director Tasha Smith will direct the pilot and second episode of Lee Daniel‘s upcoming FOX drama Our Kind of People. As previously reported, the series follows Angela Vaughn, a single mother who “risks it all” by moving her family to Martha’s Vineyard with the hopes of taking her natural hair-care line to the next level. While she attempts to infiltrate the African-American elite on the Vineyard, Vaughn’s plans are halted when she “discovers a secret.” A release date for the series has not been announced.

Finally, Reading Rainbow alum Levar Burton is staying booked and busy. According to Deadline, Burton will be featured on an upcoming episode of the CW’s Nancy Drew. He is set to voice Barclay, Tom Swift’s “steadfast AI companion and tough-love mentor.”  Burton’s episode will serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential spinoff series, which is now in development at the network. Additionally, the actor has launched the LeVar Burton Book Club via the “social reading app” Fable. Burton’s first three selections include: James Baldwin‘s semi-autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, Octavia Butler‘s modern sci-fi classic Parable of the Sower, and the essay and poetry collection The Fire This Time, edited by Jesmyn Ward. New titles will be revealed every three months.