Ava DuVernay isn’t the only one bringing the work of Octavia E. Butler to the small screen. Oscar winner Viola Davis, “Rafiki” filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu, and sci-fi novelist Nnedi Okorafor are collaborating on a television adaptation of “Wild Seed,” the first book of Butler’s Patternist series, for Amazon Prime Video. Deadline broke the news.
Published in 1980, “Wild Seed” “is a love (and hate) story of two African immortals who travel the ages from pre-Colonial West Africa to the far, far future,” the source hints. “Doro, a killer who uses his power to breed people like livestock, encounters Anyanwu, a healer who forces him to reassess his millennia of cruel behavior: for centuries, their personal battles change the course of our world as they struggle against the backdrop of time — master vs slave, man vs woman, killer vs healer.”
Kahiu and Okorafor are writing and exec producing the project and the former will direct. Davis and her husband and producing partner Julius Tennon will also exec produce via their JuVee Productions. The Octavia E. Butler estate’s Ernestine Walker and Merrilee Heifet and JuVee’s Andrew Wang will serve as EPs, as well.
“’Wild Seed’ is a book that shifted my life,” said Davis. “It is as epic, as game changing, as moving and brilliant as any science fiction novel ever written. Julius and I are proud to have this masterpiece in our hands. It fullfils our promise and legacy to be disrupters.” She added, “Octavia Butler was a visionary and we look forward to honoring the scope of her work and sharing it with the world.”
“We love Octavia Butler and her work and have for decades. But ‘Wild Seed’ is our favorite. It’s expansive, disturbing, and unique,” agreed Kahiu and Okafor. “’Wild Seed’ stays with you. It’s a love/hate story of African immortals that connects people on the African continent to the Diaspora. It merges the mystical and the scientific seamlessly. You’re going to see shape-shifting, body jumping, telepaths, people born with the ability to defy the laws of physics, all in the context of our past, present, and future world,” they promised.
Chronologically, “Wild Seed” is the first of the Patternist stories, but it was actually the fourth volume in the series to be published. The other Patternist books are, in their diegetic sequence, “Mind of My Mind” (1977), “Clay’s Ark” (1984), “Survivor” (1978), and “Patternmaster” (1976).
Butler, who died in 2006, received both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her contributions to science fiction. She also won the MacArthur Fellowship in 1995, becoming the first science fiction writer to achieve the honor. Besides the Patternist series, Butler’s other notable works include “Fledgling,” “Kindred,” and the Xenogenesis trilogy.
Davis stars as Annalise Keating on ABC legal drama “How to Get Away with Murder,” which recently concluded its fifth season. She won an Academy Award for her supporting turn in “Fences.” You can catch her next in “Troop Zero,” a comedy about a misfit group of ersatz Girl Scouts that’s expected to hit theaters later in 2019.
Kahiu’s “Rafiki” made history last year when it became the first Kenyan film to screen at Cannes. Centering on two young women who fall in love, it was banned in Kenya due to its LGBTQ subject matter. Kahiu refused to alter the film, and the ban was temporarily lifted so the film would be eligible for Oscars consideration. Kahiu’s previous directing credits include feature “From a Whisper” and she is the co-founder of Afrobubblegum, a media company that supports, creates, and commissions African art.
“Rafiki” opens in the U.S. April 19.
Also a Hugo and Nebula winner, Okorafor writes novels for adults and children as well as comics. Her books include The Binti Trilogy, “Lagoon,” and “The Book of Phoenix.”
