Jurnee Smollett and Misha Green are set to collaborate once again. The “Lovecraft Country” and “Underground” colleagues are teaming up for “Fuel,” an action film that, following “competitive bidding,” is now being negotiated at Amazon Studios, Deadline reports. Smollett and Green will produce and the former will star. Kat Wood (“Arthur & Merlin”) is writing the script and executive producing.
“Fuel” will see Smollett portraying a wheel woman in what the source describes as “a fresh take on a familiar character.” The “action-packed female empowerment story” promises to “subvert the relationship between cars and masculinity. The heroine is a getaway driver who is coerced into working for a criminal and breaking all the rules she set out for herself.”
Smollett toplined Green’s TV shows “Lovecraft Country” and “Underground.” “Lovecraft” sees a group of Black family and friends navigating social and supernatural horrors in Jim Crow America. The show is up for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series at the SAG Awards. No word on whether the show — which recently came under fire for darkening an extra’s skin tone — will return for a second season.
“Underground,” which follows enslaved people in the days before the Civil War, ran from 2016-2017 on WGN. It “broke ratings records during its first season,” according to Deadline, and nabbed four NAACP Image Awards and a TCA Award for Outstanding New Program.
Green will write and direct MGM’s next “Tomb Raider” film with Alicia Vikander. Her other upcoming projects include female-driven action pic “The Mother” and a remake of Blaxploitation classic “Cleopatra Jones.”
“Birds of Prey,” “Parenthood,” and “Friday Night Lights” are among Smollett’s previous credits.
Wood has sold scripts to Pascal Pictures, Skydance Media, and Amazon.