“We don’t have to stay in darkness,” a determined Ruby asserts in “The Darkest Minds’” trailer. “We’ve survived all of this.”
Based on Alexandra Bracken’s best-selling novel, the film explores a world in which 98 percent of children are killed in a global-wide plague. Those that did survive the illness develop supernatural powers and are subsequently labeled as a threat by the government. Ruby, played by “The Hunger Games” and “Everything, Everything’s” Amandla Stenberg, escapes her respective internment camp and joins a group of other teens on the run.
“The Darkest Minds” marks the live-action directorial debut for Academy Award nominee Jennifer Yuh Nelson. Nelson surpassed industry boundaries in 2011, as the success of “Kung Fu Panda 2” made her the highest grossing female director of the time. One of very the few female directors in animation, Nelson has slowly been adding live-action projects to her slate. In addition to “The Darkest Minds,” she will also direct Michael B. Jordan in the remake of “A Bittersweet Life.”
Stenberg also has various projects in the works, including Amma Asante’s next feature “Where Hands Touch.” The WWII-era film follows the romance between a mixed-race German girl and the son of an SS officer. Stenberg will also star in the adaptation of the Black Lives Matter-inspired novel entitled “The Hate U Give,” which centers on a young’s girls personal relation to and struggle with police brutality.
Mandy Moore (“This is Us”) and Gwendoline Christie (“Game of Thrones”) round out “The Darkest Minds’” ensemble cast. The film hits theaters August 3.
