If it feels like we've been waiting forever for A Wrinkle in Time, it's because we have — we got our first look at the film all the way back in July, and the movie won't be released until 2018. But Time Magazine has the cover story on Wrinkle, and it tells the story of someone who's waited even longer: Catherine Hand.
Hand wrote to Walt Disney in 1963, at the age of 10, and asked the entertainment magnate to make a film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. Now, 54 years later, Hand is a producer on the film, and worked with famed director Ava DuVernay to bring this legendary story to life. And DuVernay had one mission with this movie: to make it as inclusive as possible.
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"I’ve never seen somebody demand inclusiveness like that," Reese Witherspoon, who plays Mrs. Whatsit, says to Time. "It’s just a different perspective, and you don’t get that unless we start to have powerful filmmakers of different colors, different genders. You’re just gonna have the same 20 dudes making the same 20 movies over and over and over again."
"I wasn’t just casting for actresses. I was casting for leaders — icons," says DuVernay, of her decisions to cast Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, and Mindy Kaling. "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. When I think about the three of them together as a unit of celestial beings, it feels right."
DuVernay cast the film with inclusion in mind, and auditioned over 70 young actresses for the lead role. Ultimately, Meg Murray was played by newcomer Storm Reid, who saves the entire universe at just 14 years old. "Before I got this role, I wanted there to be more little girls that look like me on TV and in lead roles," says Reid. She's already a role model in our book.
Considering we first read the book in middle school, and have been waiting patiently for a proper film adaptation since then, we can wait a few more months for the films. A Wrinkle in Time opens on March 9, 2018.