Malcolm X Scripted TV Series In The Works

Photo credit: Michael Ochs

A scripted TV series on Malcolm X is being made.

The television series will be based on Manning Marable's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention. Marable will pen the TV adaptation alongside writer David Matthews (Boardwalk Empire, Tyrant) and executive producers Tom Forman, Andrew Marcus, Ray Ricord, and Jon Schwartz (all of whom are a part of independent studio Critical Content). Dr. Leith Mullings and Michael Tyner will serve as producers and consultants.

Aside from the television series the team is also working on a subsequent documentary on Malcolm X's ongoing legacy.

READ: Malcolm X's Personal Postcards Are Up For Auction

Last year, a collection of X's personal postcards were auctioned off. Written between 1957 and 1964 the 16 rare postcards show another side of the former controversial figure in the Nation of Islam (NOI), each one chronicling X's travels throughout the United States, West Africa, and the Middle East.

On their own, the postcards are still important but together they almost tell a story. In 1957 X was gradually gaining national prominence for his advocacy of Hinton Johnson, a black man who was badly beaten by police after Johnson attempted to intervene on behalf of another black man who was being beaten. Through the postcards, you see how his voice was reaching different parts of America: California, Florida, New York City and Oklahoma.

"Greetings from Sunny California. The dead are really stirring in this section of the grave yard. Greetings to your Mother & Sister. Bro[ther] Malcolm X," reads one postcard to Gloria Owens (the sister of NOI member Maceo X) that shows San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. "Greetings from Sunny Florida. Malcolm X" reads another that shows an offensive caricature of a black boy who’s about to get spanked by his mom for not saying his prayers correctly (giving X's "Greetings from Sunny Florida" remark a sardonic tone).