Bummer: Ava DuVernay Won't Direct Lupita Nyong'o in INTELLIGENT LIFE
Ava DuVernay has some serious heat in Hollywood after directing Selma. She met with Marvel about directing Black Panther (she ultimately passed), and she'll soon direct Disney's live-action adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. At the same time that project was announced, word was that DuVernay was also in talks to direct a sci-fi film for DreamWorks called Intelligent Life, which was written by Jurassic World's Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly and has Lupita Nyong'o lined up to star. But THR reports that DuVernay has now left the project due to conflicts with A Wrinkle in Time and a new TV series she's working on called Queen Sugar.
Intelligent Life centers on a U.N. delegate tasked with being Earth's representative after humanity makes contact with alien life, and then he falls in love with a mysterious woman (Nyong'o) who turns out to be an alien.
It's unfortunate that she won't be sticking around to direct this project, because it sounded like a good fit for her talents and I was excited to see what she could do with Nyong'o. But maybe she'll end up collaborating with Trevorrow again sometime down the line, because this Twitter exchange definitely seems like they're still friendly: