“Hunger Games” actress Amandla Stenberg’s star continues to rise. Stenberg has snagged the lead role in “Darkest Minds,” Fox’s adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s dystopian YA trilogy, The Hollywood Reporter writes. The film will mark “Kung Fu Panda 2” director Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s live-action directorial debut. Yuh Nelson also co-directed “Kung Fu Panda 3.”
According to THR, “Darkest Minds” is “set after a pandemic kills most of America’s children and teenagers. When some survivors develop various superpowers, they are deemed too dangerous for society, taken from their families, and placed inside internment camps.”
The first installment of the series centers on Ruby Daly (Stenberg), “a 16-year-old with telekinetic powers who escapes her camp and joins a group of teens on the run from the government.” Chad Hodge (“Wayward Pines”) penned the script.
Stenberg has many projects in the works. She has signed on to “Where Hands Meet,” Amma Asante’s next feature. The romance is set against the backdrop of WWII Germany and centers on the relationship between a 17-year-old mixed-race German girl (Stenberg) and a 19-year-old German soldier. Stenberg is also set to star in the film adaptation of “The Hate U Give,” an upcoming YA novel inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, and Stella Meghie’s “Everything, Everything,” where she’ll play a teen with a rare disease that causes her to be allergic to almost everything.
Besides her breakout role as Rue in “The Hunger Games,” Stenberg’s credits include “Sleepy Hollow,” “Rio 2,” and “As You Are.”
The multi-talented actress has released two shorts she directed, and she co-wrote a series for Stranger Comics about a hybrid elf-human warrior, “Niobe: She Is Life.” “I think it’s the first comic book that has a black female writer and a black female illustrator and a black female lead, so it’s really exciting,” described Stenberg.
Yuh Nelson has found amazing box office success with the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise. “Kung Fu Panda 2” grossed over $665 million worldwide on a budget of $150 million, and “Kung Fu Panda 3” took home more than $519 million on an estimated budget of $145 million. The animated film franchise includes the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, and Lucy Liu.
