In the wake of her interview with BUST, where she discusses feminism, directing and her goal to bring awareness and diversity to the film industry, Amandla Stenberg has been cast in a Black Lives Matter-inspired YA film called The Hate U Give.
According to Entertainment Weekly,”The Hate U Give, Angela Thomas’ forthcoming YA novel [is] about a 16-year-old girl who grew up in poverty but now attends a suburban prep school and finds herself torn between two worlds when she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed friend.”
The book, whose title was inspired by a tattoo of Tupac Shakur, was highly sought after from no fewer than 12 publishing houses — as well as multiple movie studios and producers — all interested in bringing the book to the big screen. The rights were finally sold to Fox2000 after a bidding war broke out. George Tillman Jr. is set to direct, and Audrey Wells was commissioned to write the script.
The film comes at a particularly pertinent time for Amandla, as the 17-year-old is applying for film school. In the latest issue of BUST, Amandla discusses the reason behind her call to action: “I want to be a director because I feel like I’ve been very frustrated and fed up with the lack of diversity in the film industry. I want to create those spaces and I want to create those stories.”
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The Hate U Give, Angela Thomas’ forthcoming YA novel about a 16-year-old girl who grew up in poverty but now attends a suburban prep school and finds herself torn between two worlds when she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed friend.
