Viola Davis & Julius Tennon To Develop ‘Wild Seed’ Drama Series Based On Octavia E. Butler’s Sci-Fi Book At Amazon
Deadline has reported that Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions are developing Wild Seed, a drama series based on the first book in arthur Octavia E. Butler’s Patternist sci-fi series at Amazon! The project will be written by author Nnedi Okorafor and Kenyan filmmaker and Rafiki helmer Wanuri Kahiu.
For those unaware, this isn’t JuVee Productions first time working with the studio. Since signing a first look deal with Amazon in 2018, Juvee Productions has released Troop Zero and they are currently developing Fast Color, a TV series based on the 2018 sci-fi film.
The description, per Deadline: 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. 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 versus slave, man versus woman, killer versus healer.
“Wild Seed is a book that shifted my life. 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 fullfills our promise and legacy to be disrupters. Octavia Butler was a visionary and we look forward to honoring the scope of her work and sharing it with the world,” said Davis.
“We love Octavia Butler and her work and have for decades. But Wild Seed is our favorite. It’s expansive, disturbing, and unique. 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,” said Kahiu and Okorafor.
Davis, Tennon and Andrew Wang, JuVee’s head of television development, executive produce with Kahiu, Okorafor, along with Ernestine Walker and Merrilee Heifetz with the Octavia E. Butler estate.
We will cover this series as updates come out about the progression of the show!
