Jurnee Smollett To Star In & Executive Produce Netflix’s ‘Lou’ Alongside Allison Janney

EXCLUSIVE: Jurnee Smollett, hot off a SAG ensemble nomination and a Best Actress TV Drama series Critics Choice nom for the HBO series Lovecraft Country, is boarding the Netflix movie Lou as star and executive producer.

Smollett joins Oscar winner Allison Janney, who is also starring and executive producing the Anna Foerster-directed film.

More from Deadline

• Netflix Unveils Its 'Play Something' Feature For The Momentarily Uninspired

• Netflix To Open New Nordics Hub In Sweden As European Growth Continues Apace

• 'Bo Burnham: Inside' Comedy Special Will Bow On Netflix

Written by Maggie Cohn, a massive storm rages in Lou. A young girl is kidnapped. Her mother, with no other option, teams up with the mysterious older woman next door to pursue the kidnapper – a journey into the wilderness that will test their limits and expose dark and shocking secrets from their pasts. J.J. Abrams, Jon Cohen and Hannah Minghella of Bad Robot are producing. Braden Aftergood and Lindsey Weber are also EPs. Foerster has directed episodes of Outlander, Westworld and Carnival Row as well as the Screen Gems feature Underworld: Blood Wars starring Kate Beckinsale.

Smollett plays Leti Lewis on Lovecraft Country, the adventure hungry girlfriend to Jonathan Majors’ Atticus in the Misha Green created series about a Black family during the 1950s Jim Crow America who square off against monsters and an age-old elite racist secret society, in a tale that mixes real-life history across time and space. If you haven’t seen it, check out Smollett’s electric performance in Episode 3, “Holy Ghost,” in which her character comes back from the dead and squares off with the cops and her racist neighbors after buying a house in a suburban neighborhood.

Smollett has been in Australia filming the Joseph Kosinski directed Chris Hemsworth Netflix action movie Escape From Spiderhead. She starred last year in Warner Bros./DC’s Birds of Prey as Black Canary which grossed closed to $202M WW. Other feature credits include Eve’s Bayou and Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters. Her TV credits include Green’s Underground, True Blood, Parenthood and The Defenders. She is represented by CAA, Management 360 and attorney Nina Shaw.

Best of Deadline

• U.S. Covid-19 Update: More Transmissible U.K. Variant Becomes Dominant Cause Of New Infections Among Americans

• Coronavirus: Movies That Have Halted Or Delayed Production Amid Outbreak

• Hong Kong Filmart Postponed Due To Coronavirus Fears; Event Moves Two Weeks Before Toronto

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.