Viola Davis is co-producing "Wild Seed", a drama for Amazon Prime Video, based on the first book in Octavia E. Butler’s award-winning "Patternist" sci-fi series.

Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu, whose acclaimed film "Rafiki" was the first Kenyan film to be shown at the  Cannes Film Festival, will co-write and direct.

Her writing partner: Sci-fi novelist Nnedi Okorafor, whose works include "Binti," the winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella. Her book "Who Fears" is in development at HBO with George R. R. Martin and Michael Lombardo.

"Wild Seed" follows two African immortals -- Doro the killer and Anyanwu, the healer -- from pre-Colonial West Africa to the distant future.

“Wild Seed is a book that shifted my life,” said Davis. “It is as epic, as game-changing, as moving and brilliant as any science fiction novel ever written. [producing partner Julius Tennon] and I are proud to have this masterpiece in our hands. It fullfills our promise and legacy to be disrupters. Octavia Butler was a visionary and we look forward to honoring the scope of her work and sharing it with the world.”

Kahiu and Okafor promised, "You're going to see shape-shifting, body jumping, telepaths, people born with the ability to defy the laws of physics, all in the context of our past, present and future world."

Ava DuVernay is currently developing another Butler novel, "Dawn" for television.

[Via Deadline]