If there was a genuine answer to the question “how many failed YA literary adaptations does there have to be for Hollywood to take the hint?,” we’d have found out long ago. In fact, there are so many that it might come as a surprise for many people to discover that The Darkest Minds was in fact a motion picture that was made and released as recently as the summer of 2018.
Kung Fu Panda director Jennifer Yuh Nelson made the leap into live-action filmmaking to helm the novel of Alexandra Bracken’s novel of the same name, and there were obviously franchise plans afoot given that it was merely the first entry in a series comprised of four novels, three novellas, and three short stories. And yet, like so many before it, The Darkest Minds went down in flames.
The $34 million production barely cleared $40 million at the box office, with a paltry 15 percent Rotten Tomatoes score ensuring it was almost immediately cast onto the cinematic discard pile like so many of its cinematic forbears. Completely forgotten about in an instant and long faded from memory, then, at least until Disney Plus subscribers managed to resurrect it from purgatory.
Per FlixPatrol, The Darkest Minds has become one of the most-watched features on the Mouse House’s platform, with viewers clearly yet to grow bored of tales that involve a group of teenagers with mysterious and unexplainable abilities rise up against the people trying to suppress them in order to fight back against their enemies, safeguard their future, and live up to their destinies.
Published: Feb 22, 2023 12:46 pm