Ava DuVernay Worries Audiences May Not Like ‘A Wrinkle in Time’

“I love it, but I don’t know how it’s going to be received,” director says

Ava DuVernay
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Ava DuVernay is concerned that audiences won’t have that “deep in my gut” feeling she has about her upcoming film adaptation of “A Wrinkle in Time” that she has.

“We’re really, really in the weeds on trying to finish the movie right now,” the director said during Saturday’s New Yorker Festival, according to Vulture. “I love it, but I don’t know how it’s going to be received. I feel something very deep in my gut when Oprah’s voice says, ‘There’s a darkness in the world, and the only one who can stop it is …’ smash cut to a black girl. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know if people are going to feel that like I feel that.”

DuVernay, whose previous films as director include “Selma” and the documentary “13th,” said that the movie that hits theaters in March is principally about a girl of color (Meg, played by actress Storm Reid) preventing the world from destruction.

“It’s not shied away from — it is front and center,” DuVernay said. “She is hopping planets and flying and saving the freakin’ world. She’s saving the world. Saving the world from darkness, and in the film, darkness is defined as the darkness within us. She’s saving us from ourselves. It’s deep.”

The director pointed out that she did not experience this level of uncertainty with “Selma” or “13th,” adding it’s not often that audiences get to experience a new world created from a female perspective.

“When I’m told, ‘Create a planet,’ my planet is going to look different from my white male counterparts’ planet, which we’ve seen 97 percent of the time, so you’re used to seeing this, that,” she said. “Is this going to be as fallible, as interesting, as intriguing? These are all questions that we’ve only barely been able to ask with Patty Jenkins’ great work in ‘Wonder Woman.’ What do worlds through a woman visionary’s lens even look like?”

The comments come at a time when racial division continues to make headlines, including debates over white nationalists stemming from this summer’s violent rally in Charlottesville.

“A Wrinkle in Time” is based on the 1962 novel by Madeleine L’Engle. The film, hitting theaters March 9, stars Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Zach Galifianakis and Chris Pine.

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