The first woman of color to helm a $100 million-plus live-action film and the first black woman to direct on a “Star Wars” pic are bringing an Octavia Butler classic to Amazon. The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Ava DuVernay and Victoria Mahoney’s long-in-the-works small-screen adaptation of “Dawn” is in development at Amazon Studios, “with a sizable script-to-series commitment.” Both trailblazers are executive producing and the latter is writing and will direct the potential pilot.
Published in 1987, “Dawn” centers on Lilith Iyapo, a black woman who is one of the few survivors of a nuclear war. In order to save humanity from total extinction, Lilith works with the aliens who now inhabit the earth, the Oankali. “Dawn” is the first book of Butler’s “Lilith’s Brood” trilogy, also known as the Xenogenesis series. The sequels “Adulthood Rites” and “Imago” were published in 1988 and 1989, respectively.
Butler, who died in 2006, received both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her contributions to science fiction. She won the MacArthur Fellowship in 1995, becoming the first science fiction writer to achieve the honor. Her many notable works also include “Kindred” and “Fledgling.”
Mahoney was the second unit director on “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” becoming the first black woman to direct a “Star Wars” film in the course of the franchise’s 40-plus year history. She made her directorial debut with 2011’s “Yelling to the Sky,” which sees a 17-year-old girl struggling to survive after her family life implodes. She has also helmed episodes of DuVernay TV projects “Queen Sugar” and “The Red Line.” “I Am the Night” and “You” are among her more recent credits.
DuVernay just signed on to direct a Netflix doc about late rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle. Also on her slate are a TNT series dubbed “a modern-day ‘Norma Rae’”; “DMZ,” an HBO Max pilot inspired by the Vertigo comic of the same name, starring Rosario Dawson; and DC blockbuster “The New Gods,” which she’ll direct and co-write. Her new OWN series, romantic anthology “Cherish the Day,” airs Tuesdays. Its set boasts full gender parity.
