Ava DuVernay Eyed To Direct A WRINKLE IN TIME and Colin Trevorrow's INTELLIGENT LIFE
Ava DuVernay broke out in a big way with Selma a couple of years ago, and now studios are tripping over themselves to work with her. Marvel Studios courted her to direct Black Panther, but she passed because she didn't think she'd be able to retain her artistic freedom as much as she would like in Kevin Feige's producer-driven system (Creed director Ryan Coogler eventually took on the Black Panther directing gig). And now two other studios are hoping to lure her in for upcoming movies.
Deadline reveals that DuVernay is being eyed to direct A Wrinkle in Time for Disney, which is a film adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's classic novel about a young girl (and her friends) who search for her missing father, a government scientist who was working on a top secret project involving an inter-dimensional tesseract. Frozen co-director Jennifer Lee wrote the screenplay.
DuVernay is also "in the conversation" to direct Intelligent Life for Amblin, which is a revamped version of Jurassic World director/co-writer Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly's screenplay called The Ambassador. That original idea centered on a U.N. delegate tasked with being Earth's representative when humanity makes contact with alien life, and then he falls in love with a mysterious woman who turns out to be an alien. Deadline claims that basic logline is unchanged, though the title is now Intelligent Life.
I'd love to see DuVernay direct either of these projects. They both sound like they could benefit from her filmmaking touch, but it remains to be seen whether she's interested enough in either one of them to devote the next year or two of her life to it. She also seems very aware of the power she has in the industry right now, so she'll likely make sure she ends up working with producers, writers, and other filmmakers she knows she'll be able to collaborate well with (as evidenced by her handling of Black Panther). Which film do you think is a better fit for her?