Zoë Kravitz (The Batman, Mad Max: Fury Road, High Fidelity) will be making her directorial debut with the genre thriller Pussy Island starring Channing Tatum (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Foxcatcher, 21 Jump Street), according to Deadline. The movie was co-written by Kravitz along with E.T. Feigenbaum (High Fidelity).
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In Pussy Island, Frida is a young, clever, Los Angeles cocktail waitress who has her eyes set on the prize: philanthropist and tech mogul Slater King (Tatum). When she skillfully maneuvers her way into King’s inner circle and ultimately an intimate gathering on his private island, she is ready for a journey of a lifetime. Despite the epic setting, beautiful people, ever-flowing champagne, and late-night dance parties, Frida can sense that there’s more to this island than meets the eye. Something she can’t quite put her finger on. Something that is a bit terrifying.
“The title means a lot of things,” Kravitz told the outlet. “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 to play Slater King, adding that he was “the one I thought of when I wrote this character. I just knew from Magic Mike and his live shows, I got the sense he’s a true feminist and I wanted to collaborate with someone who was clearly interested in exploring this subject matter.”
Channing says he was shocked by the offer to play Slater: “I didn’t know her. I’d watched her in movies, knew she produced High Fidelity and had seen that, but I didn’t know she was creating on a level like this, where she wanted to direct. 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. 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. It became less about men and women and on more of a human thing that will open people’s eyes, rather than us drawing lines in the sand, the you’re a man, I’m a woman, it’s us against you thing. This goes deeper in a direction I’m fascinated by and 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.”
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Bruce Cohen, Kravitz, Tiffany Persons, and Tatum’s Free Association will produce the project. FilmNation is handling international rights with CAA media Finance representing domestic rights in the Cannes Market. The film is a co-production between This Is Important, Free Association, and Bruce Cohen Productions.
