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EXCLUSIVE: Deadline hears that cameras are rolling on the set of the Amazon MGM Orion Pictures’ feature take of the 3x Obie winning play, Is God Is with I’m a Virgo‘s Kara Young and Kindred‘s Mallori Johnson playing outcast twin sisters. Also starring are Oscar nominee and 3x Primetime Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown, Kill Bill‘s Vivica A. Fox and Moonlight actress and multi-Grammy nominee Janelle Monáe.
Aleshea Harris is directing from her own script adapted from her 2018 stage play which opened Off Broadway at the Soho Rep. In Is God Is, twin sisters Racine and Anaia have disfiguring burn scars eking out a dismal existence in a city that doesn’t feel like home. Though twins, they couldn’t be more different. Racine, whose scars are only on her torso and hands, is the defender, hitting back at their many bullies since childhood. Anaia, whose scars have marked her face, is the quiet one, content to live in her sister’s protective shadow. Their world is upended when the mother they’d believed long dead summons them to her bedside and reveals that their father is responsible for her bedridden state as well as the twins’ scars. They listen in disbelief as she orders them to kill their father for what he has done. Will they take up arms and spill blood? Or find mercy on the road to confront the man who destroyed everything?
Riva Marker, Sundance Film Festival winner Janicza Bravo, Tessa Thompson, and Kishori Rajan are producing. Marker is producing with Linden Productions which is part of Nicole King and Stacy O’Neil’s Linden Entertainment. Linden Productions’ credits include Stereophonic, David Adjmi’s acclaimed play which took home five Tony Awards. They also have a slate of projects in development including Jen Silverman’s feature film Alice Sadie Celine; Yes Day 2, the sequel to the Netflix original with Jennifer Garner set to reprise her role; as well as Mrs. Claus with Netflix and Hello Sunshine. Previously, they produced the beloved Netflix film, Family Switch.
Is God Is won Obies for playwriting for Harris, directing for Taibi Magar, and performance for Alfie Fuller as Anaia and Dame-Jasmine Hughes as Racine. Harris’ 2023 play On Sugarland was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Harris is repped by WME.
Young is repped by Gersh and Kipperman Management. She won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play, for her for performance in the Broadway production Purlie Victorious. Leslie Odom Jr. She was the first Black actress to be nominated in three consecutive years, (2022, 2023, 2024) for that award. She’s a series regular in the Boots Riley created Amazon series I’m a Virgo with previous TV credits that include HBO Max’s The Staircase; Amazon’s feature Chemical Hearts; HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness; and Netflix’s The Punisher. Young made her Broadway debut in Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s for which she received a Tony and a Drama Desk Nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play. Last year, Young received her second Tony and Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play in the Pulitzer Prize winner, Cost of Living.
Johnson’s credits include the Apple TV+ series, WeCrashed and the NatGeo series Genius: MLK/X as well as the Hulu miniseries Kindred. Johnson is repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Brown, the award-winning star of NBC’s This Is Us, received an Oscar nom earlier this year for Best Supporting Actor for Amazon MGM’s American Fiction. He just joined the true crime thriller, By Any Means, opposite Mark Wahlberg. He starred in The Predator and the Marvel Studios Oscar winning movie Black Panther which grossed $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office. Brown is repped by CAA, JWS Entertainment, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
Fox’s credits include the movies Independence Day, Batman & Robin, Not Another Church Movie and the Jussie Smollett directed movie, The Lost Holliday. Fox is repped by Sheila Legette Entertainment and Ameri Law PC.
Monáe is repped by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. She is the star of $236M global grossing Hidden Figures, Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion, and the Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight.
Amazon MGM Studios did not return request for comment on this story.
