HBO Max gave everyone on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line the vapors in June when it briefly pulled Gone With the Wind, saying that “to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those [racist] depictions would be irresponsible.” Two weeks later, the movie, with an introduction from film critic Jacqueline Stewart, returned. As one would expect from the first-ever Black host at Turner Classic Movies (in 2019), her preamble was pitch-perfect.

I may not know nothing ’bout birthin’ no green light, but an even more exciting response might be making a movie written by a Black woman that places actor Hattie McDaniel where she always belonged: front and center. Enter Gesha-Marie Bland (a Women in Film/Black List episodic writers lab alum) and her yet-unproduced Selznick’s Folly. It’s Hattie’s story, mirrored by producer David O. Selznick’s, as a rather disturbingly resonant balancing act of art, profit, identity, and the sacrifices we make to pursue the American dream.