Ava DuVernay Courted For ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ And Colin Trevorrow’s ‘Intelligent Life’ [UPDATED]
WithSelma,Ava DuVernaywent from a Sundance darling to one of the busiest and most sought-after filmmakers in Hollywood. Sheflirted withand thenturned downMarvel’sBlack Panther, shemade plans to reunitewithSelmastar David Oyelowo for a Hurricane Katrina drama, and she got to work developing the dramaQueen Sugarfor Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network.
What she hasn’t done, however, is announced her next feature film. And as of now, a couple of different genre projects are vying to be it. DuVernay is reportedly being courted for both Disney’sA Wrinkle in Timeand Amblin’sIntelligent Life. The former is an adaptation of the childhood classic byMadeleine L’Engle, and the latter is a sci-fi thriller scripted byJurassic World’sColin TrevorrowandDerek Connolly.
UPDATE:Lupita Nyong’ois reportedly in talks forIntelligent Life, and DuVernay should receive a formal offer in short order. More details below.Deadlinereported on the possible Ava DuVernayA Wrinkle in TimeandIntelligent Lifeprojects.A Wrinkle in Timehas been in the works fora while already, andhas a scriptby Oscar-winningFrozenco-writer and co-directorJennifer Lee. The sci-fi fantasy adventure follows a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has mysteriously vanished after working on something called a tesseract.
Although L’Engle’sA Wrinkle in Timehas been beloved since its original publication in 1963, this new project will be the first theatrical feature based on it. Disney did, however, release a TV movie adaptation in 2004. It was not well received, and L’Engle herself said it “met expectations”: “I expected it to be bad, and it is,” she said. Here’s hoping the new iteration, whether or not DuVernay decides to adapt it, turns out better.
As forIntelligent Life, it follows a UN worker in a department whose purpose is to represent the human race if we ever have contact with aliens. The man falls for a woman who turns out to be an alien herself. Earlier reports likened it to Trevorrow’s time travel charmerSafety Not Guaranteed, which was driven more by its characters than its high-concept sci-fi premise.
UPDATE:THRreports Nyong’o “will play the woman at the center of the alien contact.“Intelligent Lifeis shooting this summer withFrank Marshalland Trevorrow producing. The project is not expected to conflict withA Wrinkle in Time, so DuVernay could conceivably do both.
Originally,the plan was for Trevorrow to directIntelligent Lifeas his follow-up toJurassic World. But as we all know, Trevorrow is about to be busy with another, much larger-scale sci-fi film,Star Wars Episode IX. Hence the search for a new director. (Don’t worry about Trevorrow, though — he still got to take a break from big-budget franchise pics with the original dramaThe Book of Henry, which should arrive in the next year or so.)
Time will tell which, if any, of these projects DuVernay decides to take on. But from the outside, they both sound intriguing. DuVernay famously turned downBlack Pantherbecause “it really wasn’t going to be an Ava DuVernay film,” which is fair — working within Marvel’s house style isn’t for everyone.A Wrinkle in TimeandIntelligent Life, on the other hand, are both properties that haven’t been established on the big screen, and should provide DuVernay ample opportunity to put her own personal stamp on them.
