Back in February, it was reported that Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Jungle Book) might team with Selma director Ava DuVernay for Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures’ science fiction feature Intelligent Life. Now, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that the in-demand DuVernay has exited the film due to schedule conflicts with her OWN series “Queen Sugar” as well as Walt Disney Pictures‘ big-screen take on Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 sci-fi fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time, which has Frozen scribe Jennifer Lee adapting the screenplay.
First announced last year, Intelligent Life boasts a screenplay by the Jurassic World pair of Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly. It has roots in an earlier project, The Ambassador. Although no plot specifics for Intelligent Life have yet been revealed, The Ambassador was set to follow a UN worker hired to represent humankind for the chance of alien contact who ends up falling in love with an alien.
Frank Marshall will produce Intelligent Life alongside Trevorrow and Big Beach Films, who produced Trevorrow and Connolly’s indie hit Safety Not Guaranteed.
