Producing “The Darkest Minds” are Fox-based 21 Laps’ (Stranger Things, Arrival) Shawn Levy and Dan Levine along with Dan Cohen and John Starke. “‘The Darkest Minds’ has been an interesting journey because we got the rights to the book five years ago and that was when as a company, 21 Laps, was known predominantly as a comedy or tent pole family film kind of company,” says Shawn Levy, whose company 21 Laps is producing the film. “But I always knew we wanted to move into this different space; a space that is what I would I call ‘character-anchored genre’,”
“I think this story had a timeless theme,” adds the film’s producer Dan Levine. “And it’s so universal, in that it’s about kids growing up into teenagers and discovering that they they’re different, which people don’t understand, especially adults and the government. So they’re thrown into camps. And the story follows these children becoming young adults and learning to stand up for themselves and protect themselves. I think the fear of fitting in and the search for acceptance often follows us into adulthood.”
“It is ultimately about a small group of kids with powers, super-human powers, that they don’t yet fully understand, who find each other by being collectively on the run from the authorities. And it’s about the way in which they rely on and connect with each other as they search for others like them. It might be dealing with intense themes and events, but the movie is fundamentally really hopeful. It’s hopeful about the possibility of connection and the possibility of acceptance, says Levy.
“The Darkest Minds” opens August 1 in PH cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox.
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