Photo by Gregory Harris
Stenberg, who starred in the first Hunger Games film, has made her cultural stamp over the last two years after teaching the world about cultural appropriation, becoming a race activist and displaying her talent as a comic book writer.
Writer Angela Thomas’ debut novel The Hate U Give — one of the first major novels about the Black Lives Matter movement — was bought by Fox 2000 after an intense bidding war. The film will be directed by George Tillman Jr. from a script by Audrey Wells.
Tillman directed 1997’s Soul Food and 2000’s Men of Honor, while Wells — a director in her own right — has written notable films like 1997’s George of the Jungle and the 2000 Disney film, The Kid.
Thomas reportedly received a six-figure deal for her novel, which details the life of a young Black girl dealing with life in an urban area and also with police brutality.
Atlanta Blackstar reported earlier this month that the book will focus on the life of Starr — a Black female lead that is presumably Stenberg — who tries to manage her life and navigate to the top while living in a poor neighborhood. Starr attends a prestigious private school that offers her a new range of opportunities. The novel will chronicle her life after she witnesses a cop kill one of her close friends. It is assumed the film will also tread along that premise.
The momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement has carried over into other forms of media as well, including comics, fashion, visual arts and photography.
The film is in pre-production, and there are no other filmmakers attached to the project.
