For the opening night of the 24th annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF), “Children of Blood and Bone” director Gina Prince-Bythewood and star Thuso Mbedu shared never-before-seen clips of the forthcoming African fantasy film and dished about making the movie.
“Obviously films like this don’t get made very often,” Prince-Bythewood told “The View’s” Sunny Hostin during the Q&A. “They say 70% of directing is casting, and that’s what this was. To be able to put together a cast like this. There are no skips. Everybody is amazing. … And as I was working on the script, I started to envision people that I wanted.”
Based on Tomi Adeyemi’s acclaimed 2018 novel of the same name, Paramount’s “Children of Blood and Bone” was shot on location in South Africa, which subbed in for the fictional kingdom of Orïsha, where magic has been prohibited. There, the logline explains, “a young woman goes on a quest to reclaim the magic that was violently stolen from her people. She and her brother ally with the daughter and son of the king to fight back against his brutal rule.”
Mbedu (“The Underground Railroad,” “The Woman King”) stars as Zélie Adebola, the young woman in question, who has the power to command the undead. Starring alongside her are Damson Idris as Prince Inan, Amandla Stenberg as Princess Amari, Tosin Cole as Zélie’s brother Tzain and Regina King as Queen Nehanda. Lashana Lynch, Idris Elba, Cynthia Erivo and Viola Davis round out the A-list cast.
