Melina Matsoukas’ next project is bringing Octavia E. Butler’s words to life.

The Queen & Slim, Insecure and Beyoncé: Formation director will direct and produce Warner Bros. adaptation of Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Variety reports. The book is one of Butler’s most popular and enduring works because of its hauntingly accurate portrayal of the 2020s, especially since the book was written in 1993.

What is the Octavia E. Butler book about?

The book follows Lauren Olamina, a young woman who lives in California amid climate change and societal and economic collapse. Lauren has hyperempathy, which gives her a “debilitating sensitivity to others’ emotions,” according to Variety. Lauren has to survive amid “surrounding anarchy” growing larger in her community. Lauren’s journey to survive leads to “the birth of a new faith and a startling vision of human destiny,” according to the book’s synopsis as reported by the outlet.

Matsoukas will also produce through her company De La Revolucion, with De La Revolucion’s head of film and television, Inga Veronique. Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson of Color Force will also produce. Color Force’s Khaliah Neal oversees with Warner Bros.’ Sheila Walcott.

The managing director of the Butler estate, Jules Jackson, will executive produce.

The film was once set at A24 with Garrett Bradley directing

This news is a massive update from our report in 2021, when Parable of the Sower was attached to A24 and director Garrett Bradley. The film was meant to be Bradley’s feature-length film debut. It was the latest in a string of planned Butler adaptations in the late 2010s/early 2020s that were in development but never got out of production hell.

Butler, an award-winning science fiction writer, died in 2006 and sadly won’t be able to see this adaptation of her work. But Matsoukas, who is known for pushing the envelope with her directorial style and storytelling, might be one of the directors who can faithfully and respectfully bring Butler’s book to the big screen.