It’s about to be a reunion of Cooper Raif’s Cha Cha Real Smooth, only without Cooper Raif. At Cannes, Dakota Johnson announced her new project, a reunion with her co-star on that film, Vanessa Burghardt. Only this won’t be in front of the camera, as Johnson is set to make her feature directorial debut from a script Burghardt wrote.
Johnson said during the announcement, “The girl that plays my daughter [in ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’], Vanessa Burkhart, she is an autistic actress and musician and brilliant person, and we have been working with her on developing a script. She’s written a script, and it’s really special, and it’s about a young woman with autism. I feel very protective of her and her story in her mind, she’s just an unbelievable woman. I just don’t think I could allow anyone else to direct it. So we’ll see.”
This won’t be Johnson’s first time behind the camera. She directed the short film Loser Baby which played at TIFF last year. She was last seen in the Sony Marvel flop Madame Web.
Johnson is at Cannes for her role in Michael Angelo Covino’s latest, Splitsville, which opens in August. She will be seen next in Celine Song’s Materialists with Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal. And after that, Johnson stars in the Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity. [Deadline]
