Zoë Kravitz has landed a seat in the director’s chair.
According to Deadline, the 32-year-old actress will make her directorial debut with a featured film titled Pussy Island. The movie will reportedly star Channing Tatum as Slater King, a billionaire philanthropist/tech mogul who hosts exclusive, intimate gatherings on his private island. The project, which Kravtiz co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum of High Fidelity, will tell the story of a Los Angeles cocktail waitress named Frida, who manages to get an invite to the private property for what she believes will be a “journey of a lifetime”; however, once she arrives on the island, Friday realizes there’s more to scene than “than meets the eye … Something she can’t quite put her finger on. Something terrifying.”
Kravitz told Deadline that Pussy Island is a genre thriller, but had elements of “comedy, drama, and real heart.”
“The title means a lot of things,” she told publication. “I started writing this story in 2017. As a woman in general, and a woman in this industry, I’ve experienced some pretty wild behavior from the opposite sex. The title was kind of a joke at first, this place where people would go, bring women, party and hang out. The story evolved into something else, but the title wound up having multiple meanings. And it alludes to this time and place we claim to not be in anymore, in terms of sexual politics. People are evolving and changing but there is still a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths from past behavior. It’s a nod to that, but it’s also playful, and a really playful film in a lot of ways. I like that the title leads with that and has some heavy meaning beneath it.”
Kravitz went on to say that Tatum was her first choice for the film’s male lead, and she had worked with the actor to develop the characters of King and Frida. She said she wanted the latter to be one of her “dream roles,” but declined to take on the part because she wanted to focus on her behind-the-scenes work.
Tatum told Deadline he was initially “terrified” of the film, as he doesn’t have much experience with projects that address heavy topics like gender and sexual politics.
“This came out of nowhere and the subject matter made me say, wait, why are you thinking about me for this? No one gives me a chance to play a role like this, everybody throws me down a different alley and expects me to do a certain thing,” he said. “It was scary and liberating, just to be able to have a free conversation, where I was allowed to mess up, and say the wrong things … I’m interested in seeing how people receive this and break it down in their own lives. And what they think the movie means and how would they have made decisions.”
Pussy Island is expected to begin filming on an undisclosed island in 2022. Kravitz, who will star as Catwoman in Matt Reeves’ upcoming Batman film, will produce the project with Bruce Cohen, Tiffany Persons, and Tatum’s Free Association.
