Dakota Johnson Making Feature Directorial Debut With Script Penned By ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ Co-Star Vanessa Burghardt [Cannes]

After working together on the Apple and Cooper Raiff helmed film “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” Dakota Johnson is looking to reunite with actress Vanessa Burghardt on an untitled project about a young woman with autism that was announced during the Cannes Film Festival.

However, as pointed out in the report from Deadline, their roles on that mysterious pic are going to be a little different, as Johnson is aiming to make her feature directorial debut, and Burghardt has penned the script.

READ MORE: Wes Anderson Says “Dark” Project Has Involvement Of Roman Coppola & Richard Ayoade [Cannes]

This new project was coyly announced by Dakota Johnson and her TeaTime Pictures producing partner, Ro Donnelly, at the Kering Women in Motion conversation event during the Cannes Film Festival.

“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,” Johnson said of the project during Kering Women in Motion.

Although beyond the brief concept of the film, we’ll have to be patient to learn more about it.

The actress is at Cannes with Michael Angelo Covino-directed Splitsville along with A24‘s “Materialists,” heading to theaters on June 13, with Dakota Johnson co-starring alongside Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in director Celine Song‘s follow-up to “Past Lives.”

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Johnson previously directed the short “Loser Baby“, which screened at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, but this would mark her first entry in the world of features and could see the actress taking on directorial gigs down the road.

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