Image: Rebecca Roanhorse

Rebecca Roanhorse has announced that her Hugo and Nebula Award-winning short story “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™” has been optioned by Amazon Studios for a potential film project.

New of the deal comes via Publishers Weekly, which explains that Amazon Studios has optioned the story for a film.

Oh hey, this got announced in PW. "Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™" is going to the movies. pic.twitter.com/RSGjDvP5RI — Rebecca Roanhorse (@RoanhorseBex) March 5, 2020

The short story first appeared in Apex Magazine in 2017 (you can listen to Levar Burton read it here), and is about a man named Jesse who works in in a VR company that provides “Vision Quest” journeys for digital tourists. Roanhorse uses the story to explore issues of cultural appropriation and identity, and the novel earned a number of awards, including the Hugo and Nebula. It was also a nominee for the Sturgeon Award and ended up on Locus’s recommended reading list.

A film option doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the story will actually be made into a movie, but it’s a good start in the process. But, Amazon is competing with the likes of Netflix and Disney for original content, and this is a story that feels very much like it would fit alongside 2018’s satirical Sorry to Bother You, which received a considerable critical for highlighting issues of race, wealth inequality, and appropriation, something that I’m sure Amazon would love to include in its lineup.