Lovecraft Country creator Misha Green is set to make her feature directorial debut with Sunflower, a thriller for Lionsgate set to star Jurnee Smollett.
Green will write and helm the film about two women struggling to escape from a deranged college professor who holds them hostage on a remote sunflower farm. Green and Craig Flores will produce the project unveiled by Nathan Kahane, president of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, which is eyeing a summer start for production.
Besides the HBO series Lovecraft Country, Green’s upcoming credits include writing and producing the feature film The Mother for Netflix. Recent credits for Smollett include Birds of Prey, the Joseph Kosinski sci-fi film Spiderhead, and Lou, which she executive produced on and starred in opposite Allison Janney.
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Sunflower reunites Smollett and Green after they worked together on the series Underground and then Lovecraft Country. The latter received 18 Emmy nominations, including nods for Smollett’s performance and Green’s writing.
“Everyone at our studio was completely drawn in by the way Misha, Jurnee, and the Lovecraft Country team worked so confidently to create a compelling genre series – then subverted the genre and reinvented it through a new lens,” said Kahane in a statement.
Green added that Sunflower is the first script she sold after arriving in Hollywood, and now the thriller will be her first feature directorial outing. “I couldn’t have hoped for better partners and collaborators than Nathan, the Lionsgate team, Craig, and Jurnee to help me shepherd it to the big screen,” she said in her own statement.
Meredith Wieck and Aaron Edmonds will oversee the project for Lionsgate. Green is represented by CAA and Range Media Partners, while Smollett is represented by CAA and Entertainment 360.
