Jennifer Yuh Nelson, best known for directing the Kung Fu Panda movies, will make her live-action directorial debut with Darkest Minds, an adaptation of the young adult novel trilogy by Alexandra Bracken.
'Kung Fu Panda' Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson to Make Live-Action Debut With 'Darkest Minds'
The Darkest Minds series is set after a pandemic kills most of America's children and teenagers. When some of the survivors develop various superpowers, they are deemed too dangerous for society, taken from the their families and imprisoned inside "rehabilitation camps."
The first book, published in 2012, follows a 16-year-old with telekinetic abilities named Ruby, who escapes her camp and joins a rag-tag group of fellow teenage escapees on the run from the government.
The bestselling series combines superhero genre conventions with coming-of-age and post-apocalyptic survivor tales. 20th Century Fox is hoping to make it their next big franchise.
Nelson comes out of animation, with a long list of credits as a character designer on shows such as Spawn and The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. With DreamWorks Animation, she served as a story artist on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and head of story on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and the first Kung Fu Panda.
She made her feature animation directorial debut in 2011 with Kung Fu Panda 2, which at the time was the highest-grossing film ever directed by a woman and earned an Academy Award nomination. She also directed Kung Fu Panda 3, released earlier this year.
More here: 'Kung Fu Panda 3' Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson to Helm 'Darkest Minds'
