Jane van Koeverden/ CBC Books
The Marrow Thieves, by Métis author Cherie Dimaline, has been optioned for television by Vancouver production company Thunderbird Entertainment, whose credits include Blade Runner 2049 and season two of Kim’s Convenience.
Published to critical acclaim in 2017, The Marrow Thieves won both the Governor General’s Literary Award for young people’s literature — text and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. It was defended by singer Jully Black on Canada Reads 2018.
The novel is set in the near future where Earth has been ravaged by climate change and a new iteration of residential schools has sprung up. Frenchie is a highly resourceful Indigenous teenager on the run from school recruiters and joins up with a group of Indigenous people on a northward journey.
“Because The Marrow Thieves has become an important work for the Indigenous community, it was essential to find a team who could bring this story to life with a commitment to honour its messages and worldview. Thunderbird has made such a commitment and I am happy to be working with them as this project comes to life and gains an even larger audience,” said Dimaline.