Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment are teaming up with A24 to develop an adaptation of James McBride’s acclaimed novel The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
The novel tells the story of Black and Jewish residents of the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the 1920s and ‘30s, though the book opens in 1972 with the discovery of a skeleton at the bottom of a well.
The description reads: “In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well.
“Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.
“As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive.
“When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community-heaven and earth-that sustain us.”
The project is still in very early development and Spielberg is not directing. The book was named as one of the best of 2023 by NPR and also made President Obama’s list of his favorite books of 2023.
This sounds like an interesting story and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how it comes together as a film.
Source: Deadline