Oscar winner Barry Jenkins will team with Leonardo DiCaprio for Netflix’s narrative adaptation of the Oscar-nominated documentary Virunga.
The 2014 doc, which was exec produced by DiCaprio, was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and focuses on the conservation work of park rangers within the Congo’s Virunga National Park as they battle to save the Congo’s mountain gorilla population.
Jenkins will pen the screenplay for the new feature, which will be produced by DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson and Phillip Watson under their Appian Way banner, and Joanna Natasegara for Violet Films. Von Einsiedel will exec produce.
Jenkins, who is repped by CAA, Silent R and Lichter Grossman, will next release Amazon’s series adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. His upcoming project also include an Alvin Ailey biopic for Searchlight.
