Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) may be gearing up to team with Selma director Ava DuVernay. The Hollywood Reporter brings word that both are in talks to join the Amblin Entertainment science fiction feature Intelligent Life. First announced last year, Intelligent Life boasts a screenplay by the Jurassic World pair of Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly.
Intelligent Life has roots in an earlier project, The Ambassador. Although no plot specifics for Intelligent Life have yet been revealed, The Ambassador was set to follow a UN worker hired to represent humankind for the chance of alien contact who ends up falling in love with an alien.
Frank Marshall will produce Intelligent Life alongside Trevorrow and Big Beach Films, who produced Trevorrow and Connolly’s indie hit Safety Not Guaranteed.
It is also reported that DuVernay is being sought to helm Walt Disney Pictures‘ upcoming big screen take on Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 sci-fi fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time. In development at the studio for some time, the most recent update (back in 2014) saw Frozen scribe Jennifer Lee coming aboard to provide the adapted screenplay.
Nyong’o is set to next lend her voice to Disney’s The Jungle Book. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film hits the big screen April 15. DuVernay, meanwhile, is helming the pilot episode of Queen Sugar, a new drama set to premiere on OWN later this year.
Production on Intelligent Life is looking to begin this summer and it is noted that the planned shooting schedule will not conflict with A Wrinkle in Time, should DuVernay sign on for both projects.
