Amazon is developing a show based on Octavia Butler’s ‘Wild Seed’

Amazon Prime Video is developing a series based on “Wild Seed,” the novel by acclaimed science fiction writer Octavia Butler.

Deadline reports that the project comes from Juvee Productions (the production company of Viola Davis and Julius Tennon) and will be written by author Nnedi Okorafor and filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu, with Kahiu directing.

Hollywood seems to be taking notice of Butler, who died in 2006, and is seen as a pioneer of Afrofuturist fiction. As of 2017, “Wrinkle in Time” director Ava DuVernay was reportedly developing a TV series based on another Butler novel, “Dawn.”

“Wild Seed” is part of Butler’s Patternist saga, and while it was one of the final books published in the series, it sets the stage for the larger conflict, laying out the romance and rivalry between the African immortals Doro and Anyanwu. (I still have vivid memories of ignoring my high school homework so that I could finish the novel in a single sitting.)

Okorafor, meanwhile, is the author of the award-winning fantasy novel “Who Fears Death,” which was optioned by HBO, with “Game of Thrones” writer George R.R. Martin attached as an executive producer.

“We love Octavia Butler and her work and have for decades,” Kahiu and Okorafor told Deadline. “But Wild Seed is our favorite. It’s expansive, disturbing, and unique.”