Ava DuVernay is keeping herself very, very busy these days, between the last week’s mid-second-season finale of her OWN TV series Queen Sugar, her recently-announced Netflix mini-series on the Central Park Five, and the upcoming release of her highly-anticipated film adaptation of Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. But apparently she’s also going to skip meals or sleeping or something, because she’s added another long-awaited literary adaptation to her dance card.
She’s reteaming with Queen Sugar director Victoria Mahoney (and Fences producer Charles D. King) for a television version of Octavia Butler’s 1987 book Dawn, the first of the author’s Lilith’s Brood trilogy and a seminal work of the Afrofuturism movement. It is, shockingly, the first film or television take on the Genius Grant and Hugo Award-winning author’s work.
Mahoney will write the series, and King and DuVernay will executive-produce. DuVernay may also direct, though that hasn’t yet been announced; she helmed the first two episodes of Queen Sugar before stepping aside to provide opportunities for other female directors. The show’s home has not yet been determined, but based on DuVernay’s existing relationships with Netflix and OWN, it seems safe to bet they’ll at least be in the running.