The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement has been a hot button issue in this country, especially now during the Presidential campaign. The movement was born as a response to the overwhelming number of police shootings of unarmed African-Americans, as well as the mass incarceration of black people compared to other races. Numerous celebrities have expressed their public support for the movement in the hopes of bringing attention to their goals, and now Hollywood is getting in on the action with a new film, The Hate U Give.
The Hunger Games' Amandla Stenberg is set to star in the film, an adaptation of Angela Thomas' hot debut book. George Tillman Jr. (Faster, The Longest Ride) will direct from a script by Audrey Wells, who previously wrote Under the Tuscan Sun. The story centers on a 16-year-old girl who leaves the slums to attend a prep school in the suburbs. When she witnesses a cop shoot and kill an unarmed friend, she is forced to testify and must deal with the consequences of her testimony. The film's title comes from the late Tupac Shakur's "T.H.U.G." tattoo.
Stenberg, who recently starred in As You Are which debuted at Sundance earlier this year, has been a fierce advocate for more diversity in Hollywood, and this is exactly the kind of role she'd gravitate to. The film rights to Thomas' book were part of a fierce bidding war that was ultimately won by Fox 2000 who will undoubtedly push to take advantage of the timely story. [THR]
