Not satisfied with merely going platinum with her debut record at the age of 10, Willow Smith has just announced her part in two exciting new female-led projects.
Her company MSFTS production have bought the film rights to Alwyn Hamilton’s fantasy young-adult trilogy Rebel of the Sands, and has also announced plans to develop an animated series called Menencholy, based on a book proposal written by Willow herself.
Menencholy tells the story of Menen-Nin Khali, a young girl who can see into her past life. Smith has remained pretty tight-lipped about specific details of the plot, but told Deadline that her protagonist will find herself “at a mystical place called The Mystery School, where we follow her as she goes through a metamorphosis”. Ominous. With plans to turn her proposal into a full-length book as well as bringing it life on screen, Smith has told her audience to “Enjoy the ride!”
Rebel of the Sands is also a fantasy feminist treat, a hot commodity in the publishing world, having only been released a year ago. In a similar vein to Willow’s own project, it focuses on a young girl in a fantasy world, this time desperate to escape her past and her hometown into deserts unknown.
So far Willow has starred alongside her dad Will Smith in I Am Legend and voiced Baby Gloria in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, but Hamilton's trilogy is likely to provide her first starring role. The second book in Hamilton’s trilogy was published last month, and the third instalment remains an unpublished mystery.
Far from your average sixteen-year-old girl, Smith has a firm grasp on the international feminist and African-American agenda, and is determined to leave her mark on it. Making a statement with every career move she has made, it’s unlikely that these projects will be any different.
