Now that the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike has come to a close, a number of new and unexpected projects are beginning to get off the ground. That includes Lionsgate’s new thriller Sunflower, which has Lovecraft Country creator Misha Green directing and penning the script — and just found its newest star. On Friday, a report from The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Grey’s Anatomy and You star Scott Speedman has been cast as the antagonist of Sunflower.
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Speedman will join a cast that also includes Green’s frequent collaborator Jurnee Smollett, as well as 1883 star Isabel May. The film is expected to begin production in South Africa in the spring of 2024.
What Is Sunflower About?
In Sunflower, two women (Smollett and May) struggle to escape from a deranged college professor (Speedman) who holds them hostage on a remote sunflower farm.
“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 when the project was first announced. “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,” Nathan Kahane, president, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, added. “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.”
Will There Be a Black Canary Movie?
Another project that Smollett and Green have been attached to is a Black Canary solo movie, which has been in development since the summer of 2021. Spinning out of the events of 2020’s Birds of Prey, Black Canary would be written by Green and would star Smollett as the titular hero, who fights crime with the help of her martial arts skills and high-powered sonic cry. While the film is not a part of DC Studios’ recently-announced “Chapter One: Gods & Monsters” slate, fans have been excited by the possibility of it happening.
“I can’t talk about it, as you know,” Smollett explained in a laugh in an interview last year. “But I can say I really am excited about what we’re developing.”
“Truly, one of the great joys of my professional career has been playing Black Canary and to see the response from the fans online and engaging on Twitter,” Smollett revealed. “They are a massive reason why I am where I am, and any excitement I have about continuing on the Black Canary trajectory, it’s being made possible because of the fans.”
What do you think of Scott Speedman joining the cast of Sunflower? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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Image Courtesy of Netflix
