J.J. Abrams’ ‘Lou’ Finds Director in ‘Outlander’s Anna Foerster

While Lucasfilm doesn’t think women are ready to direct Star Wars films, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions doesn’t have that problem at all, today announcing that Outlander director Anna Foerster will be helming Lou, about a young mother enlisting the help of an older woman to find her kidnapped child.

Mashable learned that Foerster, who will have her big-budget blockbuster debut with Underworld: Blood Wars next year, will direct the movie, with Abrams and Hell or High Water producer Braden Aftergood producing. There’s no start date in place yet, but the film will probably start casting soon.

This is big news for those of us who were more than a little irritated with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy’s comment last week that no female directors are ready to take on a Star Wars film. “We want to really start to focus in on people we would love to work with and see what kinds of things they’re doing to progress up that ladder now, and then pull them in when the time is right,” she said, indicating that Lucasfilm wants to groom female directors before letting them handle projects on their own, while the Star Wars movies are quickly racking up a slate of male directors who all went from indie to blockbuster only a film or two before being hired into the galaxy far, far away.

Bad Robot, on the other hand, put a policy in place earlier this year requiring agents to include women and people of color on their submission lists for acting and writing jobs. Abrams himself cited the #OscarsSoWhite controversy as a “wake up call.” Foerster not only has an Underworld on her docket, but also the future sequel to Source Code in the works. Maybe, if she continues her upward trend, Lucasfilm and the like will finally notice her. But we’re happy, for now, that companies like Bad Robot exist, who know a worthwhile director when they see one.