Waleed Zuaiter’s FlipNarrative Adapting Shannon Chakraborty’s Novel ‘The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi’ for TV (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Alex Ritman Production banner FlipNarrative, set up by Waleed Zuaiter — the BAFTA-nominated star of “Baghdad Central” and “Gangs of London” and Oscar-nominated producer of “Omar” — has optioned the rights to Shannon Chakraborty’s latest novel “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi,” with plans to develop it into a multi-season series and gaming platform.

The book — the first in a trilogy being published by Harper Voyager — is a swashbuckling high seas adventure following a notorious Muslim pirate captain who has survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands and an actual demon before retiring to a life of piety.

That is until she and her crew are forced into one last adventure — embarking on a mission across the Indian Ocean battling a supernatural world they never knew existed. “With ‘The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi,’ we are given a rare insight into the melting pot that is the 12th century Indian Ocean,” said Zuaiter, who founded FlipNarrative alongside his wife Joanne Zuiter, with the two later joined by development executive Sean-Dean Thomas. “The array of cultures who traversed those waters; Arabs, Africans, Asians and Europeans all taking opportunities wherever possible to make their fortunes.

None so more than Amina al-Sirafi, the anti-hero we never knew we needed.” FlipNarrative was established to amplify underrepresented and historically misrepresented voices, with Zuaiter — an Arab-American whose 30 years in Hollywood includes credits in “House of Cards,” “London Has Fallen” and “Altered Carbon” — aiming to utilize its position between Hollywood and MENASA (the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia).