Movies: Kung Fu Panda Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson On Her First Live-Action In “The Darkest Minds”

Amandla Stenberg in The Darkest Minds

“The Darkest Minds” will be the first live-action film for director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, best known for her work on the Kung Fu Panda franchise. The movie is an adaptation of the best-selling book by Alexandra Bracken, the first in a YA trilogy (The Darkest Minds, Never Fade, and In the Afterlight).

Movies: Embracing Diversity In Thrilling YA Movie “The Darkest Minds”

“The Darkest Minds” is set in a very near future society where most of the nation’s children have
perished – victims of a terrible disease. The surviving children are considered to be dangerous Enemies of the State because they possess extraordinary powers and therefore pose a threat to the government. Amandla Stenberg (Hunger Games, Everything Everything) plays Ruby, who escapes from the authorities and teams up with a group of other kids, including Liam, played by Harris Dickinson. They go on the run, using their powers, wits, and friendship to stay alive.


“The whole movie is a quest for this ‘slip kids’ camp,” says producer Shawn Levy. “And for this camp where supposedly kids live free, the character of Clancy [played by Patrick Gibson] is pretty critical because he runs this utopian kind of what could be a ‘Lord Of The Flies’, ‘Maze Runner’, kid-only civilization or outpost, with order, with kindness, with charisma. Travelling on the quest to the slip kids camp with Ruby and Liam are two other characters: Zu, played by Miya Cech and Chubs, played by Skylan Brooks.

“Zu is a nine, ten-year-old girl and Miya is a revelation – she’s this young actress at an age where you rarely find a great actress,” says Levy. “When Miya auditioned, her face was so expressive.  Her character doesn’t talk for ninety-five percent of the movie and that’s not easy.  So you need someone who is articulate without words.  And Miya, who is also crazily professional for such a young age, brings a heart achingly expressive quality to the character of Zu, who we learn, over the course of the movie, has been through real trauma – way more trauma than someone that age should ever have to go through.”

Movies: Survival Of Strong And Powerful Kids Threatened In “The Darkest Minds”

Harris Dickinson in The Darkest Minds

The latest engrossing book-to-film adaptation “The Darkest Minds” is set in a very near future society where most of the nation’s children have perished – all victims of a terrible disease. The surviving children are considered to be dangerous Enemies of the State because they possess extraordinary powers and therefore pose a threat to the government.

In the movie, the nation is in a state of crisis, 98 percent of the children have died. For the few who remain, it’s a fight to stay alive. The kids and teenagers, who all have remarkable powers and abilities, have been taken from their families and sent for brutal ‘rehabilitation’.  Here they are segregated by color according to how dangerous to society they are deemed to be. Amandla Stenberg (“Hunger Games,” “Everything, Everything”) plays Ruby who is an ‘Orange’ – signifying that she is a major threat because she can read minds and manipulate memory. She escapes and meets new friends, young survivors from different camps. Among them is Liam, played by rising British actor Harris Dickinson. There’s an immediate attraction between the two. Also starring in the gifted cast of young actors are Skylan Brooks as Chubs and Miya Cech as Zu. On the road, the kids empower themselves and discover a sense of family.

Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, whose previous hit movies include Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, “The Darkest Minds” is her impressive first foray into live action.

Movies: Hunger Games Child Star Amandla Stenberg Leads Latest YA Action Thriller “The Darkest Minds”

Amandla Stenberg - The Darkest Minds

The latest YA thrilling road trip movie “The Darkest Minds” trails surviving children who have been locked up in rehabilitation camps and are regarded as enemies of the state.  Starring in this bestselling book adaptation from author Alexandra Bracken are Hollywood’s up and coming exciting young actors – Amandla Stenberg (Hunger Games, Everything, Everything), Harris Dickinson (Beach Rats), , Miya Cech (American Horror Story), Skylan Brooks (Southpaw),  along with Mandy Moore (This Is Us), Patrick Gibson (The OA), Lidya Jewett (Hidden Figures)  and Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones). 

Movies: Stranger Things Producers Adapt Best-Selling Book “The Darkest Minds” To Film

Harris Dickinson, Skylan Brooks, Amandla Stenberg, Miya Cech The Darkest Minds.

From the best-selling book of the same title by Alexandra Bracken and the first in YA trilogy, “The Darkest Minds” brings the latest powerful pack of young adults who survived an incurable virus set in a turbulent America where 98% of the children’s population has died of a mysteries disease, deeming the 2% of the surviving children enemies of the state and forcing them on the run.

Producing “The Darkest Minds” are Fox-based 21 Laps’ (Stranger Things, Arrival) Shawn Levy and Dan Levine along with Dan Cohen and John Starke.  “‘The Darkest Minds’ has been an interesting journey because we got the rights to the book five years ago and that was when as a company, 21 Laps, was known predominantly as a comedy or tent pole family film kind of company,” says Shawn Levy, whose company 21 Laps is producing the film. “But I always knew we wanted to move into this different space; a space that is what I would I call ‘character-anchored genre’,”

“I think this story had a timeless theme,” adds the film’s producer Dan Levine. “And it’s so universal, in that it’s about kids growing up into teenagers and discovering that they they’re different, which people don’t understand, especially adults and the government. So they’re thrown into camps. And the story follows these children becoming young adults and learning to stand up for themselves and protect themselves. I think the fear of fitting in and the search for acceptance often follows us into adulthood.”

Movies: “The Darkest Minds” Trailer Debut

Brooks, Cech, Stenberg and Dickinson in "The Darkest Minds"

From the producers of “Stranger Things” comes the latest YA book-to-movie “The Darkest Minds” based on the book by author Alexandra Bracken and directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 1&3).   

Trailer links:  YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGyrqOIMp-Q&t=1s 

FB: https://www.facebook.com/DarkestMindsMoviePH/videos/436454993454969/

“The Darkest Minds” breaks out when teens mysteriously develop powerful new abilities, they are declared a threat by the government and detained. Sixteen-year-old Ruby (Amandla Stenberg), one of the most powerful young people anyone has encountered, escapes her camp and joins a group of runaway teens seeking safe haven. Soon this newfound family realizes that, in a world in which the adults in power have betrayed them, running is not enough and they must wage a resistance, using their collective power to take back control of their future.