Ava Duvernay on casting icons for A Wrinkle in Time

Cape Town – The story of how A Wrinkle in Time finally got to the big screen is a movie on its own. 

The cast of the film - Oprah, Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon and Storm Reid - are featured on the cover of Time Magazine’s December issue titled 2018: The year ahead.

See it here:

TIME’s new cover: Why ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ will change Hollywood. Photograph by @michal_pudelka for TIME; animation by @brobeldesign

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As a novel, A Wrinkle in Time has been a mainstay of middle school English curricula for decades. It introduced the spiritual antecedent to Katniss Everdeen, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hermione Granger. And it posed a series of philosophical questions that are no less relevant in the era of Trump and Putin than they were in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev. High stakes, in other words. @wrinkleintime the movie, directed by @ava, heightens the stakes even more. "I felt like we were making the new Wizard of Oz for another generation," says @oprah, pictured here with castmates @reesewitherspoon, @mindykaling and @stormreid. Read the full cover story on TIME.com. Photograph by @michal_pudelka for TIME

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Disney's adaptation of the 1963 children's book classic by Madelein L'Engle tells the story of a young girl (Reid) whose scientist father disappears.

To help find him, three supernatural beings – Mrs. Whatsit (Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Winfrey) - come to the little girl and her brother and her friend as they make their way through the universe.

See the trailer here:

Director Ava Duvernay admits that she didn’t immediately say yes when she got the call from Disney. 

But when Disney executive Tendo Nagenda issued her a challenge about the worlds she could create, Ava got a board.

For Ava the casting process was very crucial she told Time: “I wasn't just casting for actresses. I was casting for leaders - icons."

“Reese is the hottest producer in town. Oprah's the most prolific, venerable legend of television and an artist and entrepreneur. And Mindy's one of the few women running a show with her name, about her.”

She adds: “When I think about the three of them together as a unit of celestial beings, it feels right.”

From the 70 girls that Ava auditioned for the lead newcomer Storm became the benchmark for what she was looking for.

Speaking about being cast for the role Storm says: “Before I got this role, I wanted there to be more little girls that look like me on TV and in lead roles.”

Watch a behind-the-scenes video of the cover shoot here:

A Wrinkle in Time hits cinemas in March 2018.