Get ready for some thought-provoking cinema! Chiwetel Ejiofor and Gina Prince-Bythewood have announced new independent projects for 2014.

Love & Basketball director Prince-Bythewood is sticking to the genre she knows best with Blackbird, described as a love story set in the world of music according to Shadow & Act. Super producer The-Dream is creating all the music for the film, which stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw. 

The director tweeted a photo of rehearsal for the film, which begins shooting shortly. Prince-Bythewood joined Twitter just a few days ago, but has already been active on the social media platform (among her first tweets was a congratulatory message for newly-engaged Kevin Durant and Monica Wright, whose love story mirrors the plot to her film Love & Basketball). Hopefully she'll tweet updates on the rest of the cast for the film.

Meanwhile, British heartthrob Ejiofor is taking his first stab at directing with an ambitious project. Ejiofor will adapt the best-selling memoir The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, a moving tale of an African boy who builds a windmill to protect his family from life-threatening droughts. 

Release dates have not been set for either film, but it's safe to say we'll have to wait until at least next year to see these projects on the big screen.

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(Photos from left: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images, Stuart Wilson/Getty Images)