Nnedi Okorafor To Work On Script For Viola Davis' New Show, 'Wild Seed'

Oscar-winning actress, Viola Davis is developing an Octavia Butler novel as a drama series. Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions will be adapting and developing the novel, Wild Seed, for Amazon Prime Video. Wild Seed is the first of Butler’s Patternist sci-fi series.

(Photo: Variety)

The TV show will be scripted by award-winning Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor, and Kenyan filmmaker, Wanuri Kahiu (Rafiki). The show will also be directed by Wanuri Kahiu. According to Deadline, it will focus on the love (and hate) story of two African immortals:

“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 vs slave, man vs woman, killer vs healer.”

Viola Davis’ JuVee productions pursued the rights to the book for over two years before they got the Butler estate’s blessings. The attached team is pretty incredible.

Viola is one of the world’s best actresses, Nnedi is a celebrated sci-fi writer and Wanuri most recently directed and wrote the acclaimed LGBTQ feature Rafiki, which made history last year as the first Kenyan film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival.

We cannot wait to see this project come to life.