Jay Roach Will Rewrite, Possibly Replace Ava DuVernay on Amblin’s ‘Intelligent Life’

For a brief moment, Ava DuVernay was attached to direct Intelligent Life for Amblin with Lupita Nyong’o on board to star, but when the former departed the project to focus on Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, the latter also jumped ship — leaving the film in flux. But the sci-fi project has found new life with Jay Roach, who has signed on rewrite and potentially direct Intelligent Life based on Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly’s screenplay.

Per Variety, Amblin has tapped Roach to rewrite and develop Intelligent Life for producers Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow, Frank Marshall and Peter Saraf. Based on a screenplay by the Jurassic World director and his writing partner Connolly, the new sci-fi film follows a United Nations employee who begins communicating with a beautiful and mysterious woman while monitoring outer space — you can probably guess what that woman’s secret might be.

Amblin is reportedly pushing for Roach to helm the project in addition to collaborating with Larry Stuckey (Little Fockers) on the rewrite. He’s certainly an intriguing and somewhat unconventional choice for a sci-fi romance, especially one that originally had Ava DuVernay attached to direct. Roach is best known for the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents movies, as well as last year’s Trumbo and HBO political films like All the Way and Recount.

With Roach on board and Amblin on the hunt for big names to lead the project, it shouldn’t be much longer before Intelligent Life heads into production.