Zoë Kravitz to make directorial debut with ‘Pussy Island’

Channing Tatum will portray a tech billionaire and owner of a private island

Zoë Kravitz will make her directorial debut with the feature thriller Pussy Island, starring Channing Tatum

Kravitz wrote the script with E.T. Feigenbaum, and Tatum will portray a tech billionaire and owner of a private island, Variety reports. Here’s a breakdown of the synopsis: 

The film follows a young Los Angeles cocktail waitress named Frida, who has her sights set on tech mogul Slater King, played by Tatum. Frida makes her way into King’s inner circle and attends an intimate gathering on his private island, where she will have the journey of a lifetime. Despite the beautiful location and wealthy people, Frida uncovers that there’s more to the island than meets the eye — something terrifying.

Zoe Kravitz
Zoë Kravitz (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

Kravitz will produce the project alongside Bruce Cohen Productions, Tiffany Persons, and the production companies Free Association and This Is Important, according to the report. 

Meanwhile, Kravitz will next play Catwoman in Matt Reeves’ upcoming film The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson. She joins a shortlist of Black women who have portrayed the iconic comic book villain. Eartha Kitt played Catwoman in the 1960s TV series and Halle Berry took on the character in 2004 in Catwoman.

Kravitz previously revealed that she couldn’t get an audition for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises during a 2015 interview with Nylon

Apparently, her race was the problem, theGrio reported.

“In the last Batman movie [The Dark Knight Rises], they told me that I couldn’t get an audition for a small role they were casting because they weren’t ‘going urban,’” she said. “It was like, ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ I have to play the role like, ‘Yo, what’s up, Batman? What’s going on wit chu?’”

Last year, Kravitz admitted that the pressure of living in the shadows of mother, actress Lisa Bonet and rockstar dad Lenny Kravitz once had her considering dropping her last name altogether. 

theGRIO.com
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 17: Zoë Kravitz of “High Fidelity” speaks during the Hulu segment of the 2020 Winter TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 17, 2020 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Speaking to Dax Shepard for his podcast Armchair Expert, the starlet opened up about the challenges she has faced in her career. One of them is the insecurity she felt about constantly being associated with her parents while developing a name for herself.

“Did you embrace your name or did you run from it?” asked Shepard.

“I thought about not using it,” said Kravitz. “I thought about going by my middle name. Kind of tried to do it, but it just like didn’t stick. People kept on forgetting. No one was responding to this idea I had. I would tell my agent and it just wasn’t happening.”

She also noted that despite her good intentions, her father took issue with her attempts to drop his name, recalling, “I also think I mentioned it to my dad at one point and I think I could feel that it made him a little sad. So, yeah, I just kind of stuck with it, I did use to be really insecure about people just associating me with my family and now I love it—I’m so proud of them and it’s cool.”

theGrio’s Cortney Wills and Blue Telusma contributed to this report. 

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!

Mentioned in this article:

More About: