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A book by Octavia E. Butler that took 27 years to be named a New York Times Bestseller is finally getting adapted as a film—at precisely the right moment.
Set in a dystopian 2025, Parable of the Sower follows Lauren Olamina, a young Black woman who can feel others' pain, who is displaced from her California home. The world is dangerous, as small, walled communities have to protect themselves against scavengers and drug-addicted thugs, and climate change threatens life itself after a newly elected radical, authoritarian president loosens labor protections and allows foreign businesses to run company towns.
It's not nonfiction. It's a sci-fi novel written in 1993.
Warner Bros. has just picked it up and named Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim, Insecure and collabs with Beyoncé) as director of an adaptation that'll finally bring it to the big screen three decades after its release, according to Variety.
ScreenRant says Matsoukas has the resume to do it justice. She has "the ability to blend intimate character-driven storytelling with broader social commentary, aligning closely with Butler’s writing," they write. "With her 2019 film Queen & Slim, she explored themes of systemic injustice and survival, making her a fitting choice to tackle Butler’s dystopian vision."
While Parable of the Sower has won many awards, including the 1994 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and it's been adapted into an opera and a graphic novel, it wasn't until 2020 that it appropriately became a bestselling title—14 years after Butler's death.
In 2021, it was picked by readers of The New York Times as the top science fiction nomination for the best book of the last 125 years. That's when A24 purchased the rights to the story and named Time director Garrett Bradley as director, but there was no movement on the project until now.
While it has been 27 years in the making, the timing is right as we face some pretty real dystopian headlines, from AI-induced layoffs and revoked citizenships. It'll be so incredible to see Butler's story of a Black woman prevailing on the big screen soon.