The Babadook director Jennifer Kent to direct a mystery sci-fi film

Jennifer Kent, director of horror classic The Babadook, says she’s currently working on a sci-fi film that could go into production this year. But what is it…? Released in 2014, The Babadook, at least as far as this writer’s concerned, was one of the smartest and disturbing horror movies of the 2010s. Australian director Jennifer ... The Babadook director Jennifer Kent to direct a mystery sci-fi film

Jennifer Kent, director of horror classic The Babadook, says she’s currently working on a sci-fi film that could go into production this year. But what is it…?

Released in 2014, The Babadook, at least as far as this writer’s concerned, was one of the smartest and disturbing horror movies of the 2010s.

Australian director Jennifer Kent has made just one other feature since then – 2018’s The Nightingale. Now however, she says she has a science fiction film in the works, which could go before cameras later in 2026.

Kent brought the project up while talking to the Blank Check podcast (as spotted by World Of Reel). The filmmaker was terse when it came to specifics; all she said on the matter was that she’s “working on a sci-fi film that looks to be shooting this year,” and even more intriguingly, “it’s an adaptation of something.”

We can only speculate as to what it might be. A classic sci-fi novel adaptation? A more recent graphic novel? World Of Reel mentions that Kent was at one stage developing an adaptation of The Thief Of Always, by Clive Barker, but that falls more into the horror genre than sci-fi. It could be what Kent’s referring to, though.

Kent’s comments also leave us wondering about Alice + Freda Forever – a true crime thriller based on the book of the same name by Alexis Coe. The director was working on that adaptation for some time – it was announced in 2015, between the release of her two feature films, and filming took place in the autumn of 2021 according to Production List.

It’s unclear whether that shooting took place, however, or whether it was delayed; there’s been little in the news about the project since 2019, when Amazon Studios was making a bid to finance and distribute it.

We’ll bring you more on what Jennifer Kent’s up to as we hear it.