Duke Johnson To Direct & Produce Feature Take Of George Saunders’ ‘Lincoln In The Bardo’ For Starburns Industries
EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominated filmmaker Duke Johnson is set to produce and direct the feature take of George Saunders’ New York Times best-selling and 2017 Booker Prize-winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo which Starburns Industries recently acquired from the author.
Saunders is adapting for the screen and will serve as EP. Starburns Industries is the studio for the feature project with the company’s Paul Young and Devon Young Rabinowitz producing. Aaron Mitchell is executive producing for Starburns Industries.
The film will employ a mix of live-action and stop-motion animation to tell the story of one of the most intimate moments in Abraham Lincoln’s life, following his relationship with his recently deceased 11-year old son. The story, which blends history and imagination, unfolds through an ensemble of characters – living and dead, historical and invented – to explore themes of love, empathy, and the human capacity for connection in the face of unimaginable grief.
“Duke came to me with a radical, insightful vision of the film that perfectly captured the spirit of the book,” Saunders said. “I was blown away and inspired by his passion for the project.”
Johnson is best known for directing the Oscar nominated animated feature Anomalisa alongside Charlie Kaufman. The pic also received an Animated Feature nom at the Golden Globes, as well as four Independent Spirit noms (Feature, Director, Screenplay and Best Supporting Female Jennifer Jason Leigh) following its Grand Jury Prize win at the Venice Film Festival in 2015. In 2025, Johnson directed and co-wrote The Actora live-action psychological thriller inspired by Donald E. Westlake’s novel Memoryreleased by NEON.
Saunders wrote 13 novels, his latest being Vigilwhich debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. His story collection, Tenth of Decemberwas a finalist for the National Book Award which won the inaugural Folio Prize for the best work of fiction in English and the Story Prize for best short story collection. In 2024, three of Saunders’ books – his novel Lincoln in the Bardo and the short story collections Pastoral and Tenth of December – were selected for The New York Times list of “The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.” In 2013, Time magazine named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Saunders is a recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Story, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Johnson is repped by WME, manager Paul Young, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher. Saunders is repped by CAA.
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