Ava DuVernay is First Black Woman to Direct a $100 Million Film

By Sameer Rao Aug 04, 2016

Ava DuVernay‘s been on a roll as of late. Her OWN drama "Queen Sugar" earned a second season order before the first season even premiered, and her mass incarceration-focused documentary "The 13th" will open the New York Film Festival. Now, the "Selma" director is making history as the first Black woman to direct a live-action film with a $100 million budget.

Deadline reported Tuesday (August 2) that DuVernay and Disney’s upcoming "A Wrinkle in Time" has a $100 million-plus budget—an amount that makes DuVernay one of only three female directors to create a live-action film with that high of a budget. The other two, according to Okayplayer, are Kathryn Bigelow for 2002’s "K-19: The Widowmaker" and Patty Jenkins for 2017’s "Wonder Woman." Both Bigelow and Jenkins are White.

"A Wrinkle in Time," based on Madeleine L’Engle’s 1963 science fiction novel of the same name, follows a girl’s search for her missing scientist father. Deadline reports that Oprah Winfrey, who co-created "Queen Sugar," will star.