While earlier we reported that Selma director Ava DuVernay was circling two sci-fi films, one of them being the latest film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time and the other being Intelligent Life, we’re already hoping things work out for the latter. Why? Oscar winner and Star Wars: The Force Awakens actress Lupita Nyong’o is in negotiations to take the lead role.

DuVernay and Nyong’o in the same movie? Can you imagine such a glorious convergence? Both ladies have proven themselves massive talents in their fields. Not many people can say no to directing Marvel’s Black Panther movie and not many can stand out from an A-list cast to win an Oscar. But here we are.


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Image via Lucasfilm

THR revealed the casting. Intelligent Life, written by Colin Trevorrow and his Jurassic World collaborator Derek Connolly, reworks an earlier project called The Ambassador from the creative pair. The story centers on a man working in the U.N. department created to represent humankind should alien life make contact. Said man falls in love with a woman who, as it turns out, is an alien, and the tone is said to be like Trevorrow’s earlier work Safety Not Guaranteed. Nyong’o will play “the woman at the center of the alien contact.”

While we’re still talking about the actress’ performance in 12 Years a Slave more than two years after its theatrical debut, Nyong’o portrayed the motion-captured character Maz Kanata in J.J. AbramsThe Force Awakens. Ahead for her this year is The Jungle Book, in which she voices the wolf Raksha, and Queen of Katwe, playing Uganda chess champion. DuVernay, meanwhile, hasn’t chosen her post-Selma feature film directorial project. As THR noted, the schedule for Intelligent Life does not conflict with that of A Wrinkle in Time, so the helmer could arguably do both.