What began as a script by Jurassic World's Colin Trevorrow and co-writer Derek Connolly, Intelligent Life was pushed into limbo after losing its original directorial choice. Now Amblin has Jay Roach on board to do a rewrite and the company is hoping he might also call the shots.
An original idea by Trevorrow and Connolly, Intelligent Life started out as a script called The Ambassador, which saw a UN worker in a department set up to handle first contact with an alien species. He ends up falling for a woman who may or may not be of this planet.
Trevorrow has been busy with The Book Of Henry and preparing to make the ninth main Star Wars instalment, so Ava DuVernay stepped aboard to direct and had Lupita Nyong'o on to star. But DuVernay was lured away by Disney's adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time and Nyong'o departed shortly after. Now Roach is on to work on the script for producers Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall, and while he's only agreed to that job for now, there's a chance he'll find something in it that makes him want to direct. His last directorial effort was Trumbo, and he's got a variety of potential projects lined up, but Intelligent Life might just leapfrog the rest. Watch this... space?