Jamaican novelist Marlon James series set for an HBO debut

The long-awaited series Get Millie Black, created by Jamaican Novelist Marlon James, will be released via HBO on Friday, Nov. 25, 2024. HBO announced this officially last Monday on its official news page.

The series will mark the screenwriting debut of Marlon James, the 2015 Man Booker Prize-winning author. It is a Channel 4 release from Motive Pictures, a British production company operated by Simon Maxwell, a former Channel 4 International drama boss and co-creator of Fox’s international drama series, “Deep State.”

The series’ filming started in 2022 and will feature at least seven areas of Kingston, Jamaica. Millie-Jean Black, a former Scotland Yard investigator, returns to Kingston to investigate missing people for the Jamaican police. This six-part series will star the British Actress Tamara Lawrence.

Based on the summary of the series, “The Millie Black picks up the trail of an investigation that begins in the steaming streets of Downtown Kingston and works its way up to the hill plantations of the postcolonial elite. She soon finds herself on a quest to save a sister who will not be saved, to find a boy who cannot be found, to solve a case that will blow her world apart and prove almost as tough to crack as Millie Black. Events eventually explode into the international stage, propelling Millie back to the UK, where, pretty soon, everyone is out to get Millie Black.”

The series will include performers including Gershwyn Eustache Jr. (The Yellow Bird)) as a Jamaican Police officer and Curtis and Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones) as Scotland Yard inspector Luke Holborn.  A part of the crew also includes Hit Girl, a go-go bar owner, who will be portrayed by Dorothy’ Patra’ Smith, and Chyna McQueen, an actress who will also play Hibiscus, a Jamaican “gully queen.”

“We are immensely proud to announce such a stellar line-up of talent on Get Millie Black – from directors Tanya Hamilton and Annetta Laufer to writers Theresa Ikoko, Lydia Adetunji and Joshua St. Johnson, to a cast that showcases some of the most exciting acting talents from Jamaica and the UK, led by Tamara Lawrence, Joe Dempsie, Gershwyn Eustache Jr. and a debut performance destined to electrify audiences from rising Kingston star, Chyna McQueen,” announced Motive Pictures CEO, Simon Maxwell. 

The series is produced for HBO and Channel 4 by Motive Pictures; Get Millie Black features creator/executive producer Marlon James, executive producer Jamie O’Brien, executive producer Simon Maxwell,`(CEO Motive Pictures), and executive producer Leopoldo Gout.

A Washington-based former employee of the Organization of American States, journalist and international translator Ian Edwards, commented on the brilliance of Marlon James, “I am so excited as a fellow Jamaican to learn of the latest offering of Marlon James. Get Millie Black, the HBO drama set to hit the screens as a series, to boot, is a powerful reminder as to how this Booker Prize winner can fearlessly tread any terrain.”  

Ian Edwards expressed kudos to Mr. James, who has already shown us through his earlier work, “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” that his work is compelling enough to hold the attention of a global audience.