Sunflower: Jurnee Smollett to Lead Misha Green’s Feature Directorial Debut

Birds of Prey star Jurnee Smollett has signed on for the leading role in Misha Green’s upcoming feature directorial debut, titled Sunflower.

The thriller drama will serve as a reunion project for Smollett and Green after previously working together on HBO’s acclaimed horror series Lovecraft Country.

“Sunflower was the first script I sold when I landed in Hollywood, and now having the opportunity to make it my first feature directorial outing feels like kismet,” Green said in a statement (via Deadline). “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.”

“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,” President of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, Nathan Kahane said. “That’s the opportunity with Sunflower. The screenplay is unique, thrilling, and flat-out scary. It’s going to make a hell of a movie.”

Sunflower will be written and directed by Misha Green (Heroes, Underground). The film will center around two women who get held hostage by a deranged college professor who’s keeping them on a remote sunflower farm. Production is expected to begin this coming summer.

The film will be produced by Craig J. Flores for Bread and Circuses Entertainment. Lionsgate has tapped Meredith Wieck and Aaron Edmonds to oversee the project on behalf of the studio.