With Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow and counterpart Derek Connolly penning the script for the upcoming Intelligent Life, it has been reported that Lupita Nyong’o is now in talks for a lead role in the film. Ava DuVernay (Selma) is expected to be offered the director’s seat for the Steven Spielberg Amblin Entertainment produced picture.
The story is said to be a reformatted version of a prior Trevorrow-Connolly project titled The Ambassador. It followed a U.N. worker who is part of a department to represent humanity if there were to be any alien occurrence. Eventually he falls in love with a woman who is in fact an alien. Nyong’o’s role will be of a woman in the middle of the alien contact.
DuVernay is also in talks with Disney to adapt the popular children’s book A Wrinkle in Time by Madelein L’Engle. The option of working on both features is a possibility since the two projects do not coincide with one another.
Producing alongside Trevorrow is Frank Marshall and Big Beach Films. Trevorrow will direct Star Wars: Episode IX which is expected to release in 2019.
Nyong’o’s last role was in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in which she played the CGI alien Maz Kanata. Disney has been recruiting her talents frequently as she lends her voice to the upcoming live action version of The Jungle Book that releases in theaters April 15 and also in the chess drama Queen of Katwe alongside Selma star David Oyelowo.