Amazon Taps Antoinette Nwandu To Adapt ‘Wash Clean The Bones’ Based On Short Story By Nafissa Thompson-Spires

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios has hired playwright Antoinette Nwandu to pen the film adaptation of Wash Clean The Bones, a short story from the Heads of the Colored People story collection by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. The collection, which was published by 37 Ink (an imprint of Atria Books), explores the concept of black identity in what is viewed as a post-racial society.

Marking Thompson-Spires’ debut, Heads of the Colored People was longlisted for the National Book Award (Fiction), is a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize, and was listed in Chicago Review of Books’ Most Anticipated Books of 2018.

Wash Clean The Bones is dark comedy about a churchgoing nurse whose outlook on life – particularly that of her infant son – is upended after her side-gig as a funeral singer lands her at the graveside of several young boys who’ve fallen victim to gun violence.

Nwandu’s play Pass Over was live captured by Spike Lee and financed by Amazon, and premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The show was subsequently produced Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater and was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Nwandu is also on the writing staff for Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It Netflix series.

ICM Partners reps both Nwandu and Thompson-Spires.