Sunflower: Jurnee Smollett to be held captive at a farmhouse in thriller directed by Misha Green

Misha Green has been wanting to make a thriller called Sunflower for a long time… and after spending more than a decade in development hell, the project is finally moving forward at Lionsgate! Green had been attached to make her feature directorial debut on a Tomb Raider film starring Alicia Vikander, but that fell apart when MGM lost the rights to the Tomb Raider franchise. So Green has now shifted over to making her feature directorial debut on Sunflower – and she has cast Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey) in the lead role.

Green and Smollett previously worked together on the TV shows Underground and Lovecraft Country. Green created Underground with Joe Pokaski and developed Lovecraft Country from the Matt Ruff novel. Her first directing credit was on an episode of Lovecraft Country.

The screenplay Green wrote for Sunflower was so highly regarded that it was on the Black List back in 2008. The story follows two young women who are held hostage in a prison-like farmhouse by a deranged college professor. As they struggle to survive, they’re forced to face the possibility of fighting each other for their lives.

Back in 2012, Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld were going to produce Sunflower for 20th Century Fox, with Adam Blaiklock (Caught Inside) on board to direct. The current iteration of the project is being produced by Green and Craig J. Flores of Bread and Circuses Entertainment. Meredith Wieck and Aaron Edmonds are overseeing Lionsgate.

Green provided Deadline with the following statement: “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. I couldn’t have hoped for better partners and collaborators than Nathan Kahane, the Lionsgate team, Craig, and Jurnee to help me shepherd it to the big screen.“

Lionsgate’s Nathan Kahane added: “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. 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 sounds interesting to me and I’m glad Green is going to have the chance to bring the story to screen fifteen years after the script was featured on the Black List. I look forward to seeing how the movie turns out.

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