Roxane Gay’s Graphic Novel ‘The Banks’ Gets Film Adaptation
Roxane Gay’s graphic novel “The Banks” is coming to the big screen, with a film adaptation in the works from publisher TKO Studios and Macro.
The six-part graphic novel — written by the New York Times bestselling writer (“Hunger,” “Bad Feminist”) and drawn by artist Ming Doyle (“The Kitchen”) — was published in 2019 and follows the story of three generations of Black female master thieves in Chicago. To avenge the loss of a loved one, the women must “mend their differences to embark on a heist of a lifetime.”
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“I am thrilled to revisit the world of ‘The Banks.’ Clara, Cora, and Celia Banks are fierce women with compelling stories that will really come alive on the silver screen,” Gay said in a statement. “I am also excited about partnering with TKO Studios, an amazing publisher to create comics with, and Macro, a company that is a standard bearer for excellence with the films they make.”
Gay will write the film’s script and serve as an executive producer on the project. Producers on “The Banks” include Macro’s Charles D. King, Poppy Hanks and Jelani Johnson; and TKO Studios’ Salatore Simeone, Tze Chun and Jatin Thakker.
TKO Studios, co-founded by Simeone and television showrunner Chun in 2018, has quickly risen the top 1% of e-commerce companies and has been touted as “America’s fastest growing graphic novel publisher.”
Founded in 2015 by King, Macro’s multi-platform media company has co-financed critically acclaimed films including “Mudbound,” “Fences,” “Roman J. Israel, Esq.,” “Sorry to Bother You” and “Just Mercy,” and resulting in nine Oscar nominations. The studio also co-financed and produced the upcoming film “Judas and the Black Messiah” for Warner Bros.
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