Rebecca Hall to Direct Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in PASSING

Rebecca Hall will make her directorial debut with Passing, an adaptation based on Nella Larsen's 1920s Harlem Renaissance novel that explores the practice of racial passing, a term used for a person classified as a member of one racial group who seeks to be accepted by a different racial group, according to Deadline. Hall has also written the script, and Tessa Thompson and Oscar nominee Ruth Negga are attached to star.

Passing, published in 1929, follows the unexpected reunion of two high school friends, Clare Kendry (Negga) and Irene Redfield (Thompson), whose renewed acquaintance ignites a mutual obsession that threatens both of their carefully constructed realities.

"Nella Larsen's Passing is an astonishing book about two women struggling not just with what it meant to be BLACK IN AMERICA in 1929, but with gender conventions, the performance of femininity, the institution of marriage, the responsibilities of motherhood, and the ways in which all of those forces intersect," Hall said. "I came across the novel at a time when I was trying to reckon creatively with some of my personal family history, and the mystery surrounding my bi-racial grandfather on my American mother's side. In part, making this film is an exploration of that history, to which I've never really had access."

Hall recently starred in the Robinson-written and -directed Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. Thompson is in production on Men In Black 3 for Sony and stars opposite Michael B. Jordan in Creed 2. Negga received an Oscar nom for her portrayal of Mildred Loving in the biopic Loving and stars in the upcoming James Gray's sci-fi film Ad Astra.

Read the original story on Deadline.

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