With Selma and upcoming US TV drama Queen Sugar, director Ava DuVernay and producer/actress Oprah Winfrey have formed a solid working partnership. It's hardly surprising, then, that Winfrey will crop up in DuVernay's next project, the adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time.
Frozen's Jennifer Lee has written the script, which draws on Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 tome. The story follows the Murry family; especially teenager Meg and her genius 5-year-old brother Charles Wallace, and Meg's classmate Calvin O'Keefe. Their scientist father has gone missing, but after the visit of a mysterious old lady called Mrs. Whatsit – who tells their mother that "There is such a thing as a tesseract" – they learn that their father's research may have been more successful than they guessed and that he may have travelled in space and time. The kids end up following his footsteps to a planet called Camazotz, ruled by a giant evil brain called The Black Thing.
Winfrey is finalising a deal to play Mrs. Which, one of the powerful supernatural beings who help the kids in their quest. DuVernay is currently putting the project together, looking to kick off shooting this year, with the hopes of releasing the movie in 2017 via Disney. Winfrey has a few TV series in the works, most of which she'll be appearing in and producing, including family megachurch drama Greenleaf and HBO's The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks.