Cool project alert: Oprah and Ava DuVernay are teaming up for “Queen Sugar”

Selma director Ava DuVernay may not have nabbed her own Oscars nomination this year, but she’s still having a great February. The filmmaker is working with none other than Oprah Winfrey to create a series for OWN based on Natalie Baszile’s novel Queen Sugar.

DuVernay won’t just be the director, she’ll also be the writer and executive producer of the show. And Oprah herself will have a recurring role in the series— it will be the first time she’ll appear on a scripted series on OWN.

Of course, it’s not the first time that DuVernay and Winfrey have worked together. Winfrey also has a supporting role in Selma.

Per a press release from OWN, Queen Sugar, based on the 2014 novel by Natalie Baszile, will focus on “a spirited woman who leaves her upscale Los Angeles lifestyle behind to claim an inheritance from her recently departed father – an 800-acre sugar cane farm in the heart of Louisiana.” She and her teenage daughter have to adapt to a new lifestyle with, no doubt, interesting results.

Production on the show is set for later this year. “I loved this book and immediately saw it as a series for OWN,” Winfrey said in the release. “The story’s themes of reinventing your life, parenting alone, family connections and conflicts, and building new relationships are what I believe will connect our viewers to this show.”

And DuVernay is excited about it too, needless to say.

“From the moment I was introduced to the book, I was captivated by the idea of a modern woman wrestling with identity, family, culture and the echoes of history,” DuVernay added. “To bring this kind of storytelling to life alongside Oprah for her network is wildly wonderful. I’m excited about what’s in store.”

DuVernay is going to have her hands full this year. She’s also directing a film about Hurricane Katrina, set to start production later in 2015.

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