Zoe Kravitz on turning director with Blink Twice: Got scared to pass this off to someone else

Zoe Kravitz

This August, Zoë Kravitz makes her feature directorial debut in Amazon MGM Studios' wild new psychological thriller 'Blink Twice'. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film's ensemble cast includes BAFTA winner Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Golden Globe winner Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan with Oscar winner Geena Davis and Alia Shawkat.

When tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Ackie) at his fundraising gala, sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. It's paradise. Wild nights blend into sun-soaked days and everyone's having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She'll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.

The 'Blink Twice' screenplay is from Kravitz & E.T. Feigenbaum ("High Fidelity"), and the film is produced by Bruce Cohen, Tiffany Persons, Garret Levitz, Kravitz and Tatum. The executive producers are Stacy Perskie, Jordan Harkins and Vania Schlogel.

Zoe Kravitz, who has earned critical acclaim for her work in The Batman and High Fidelity, always was interested in directing and extending involvement in the film world beyond just acting. "I think what I realized was that while I worked as hard as I can and always want to do the best job that I can, that I just really love movies as a whole," she says. "Acting was the way that I knew I could contribute."

Once she got deeper into the writing process of Blink Twice she found it hard to let go. The idea of handing it off to a different director became unthinkable. "I think I just got a little scared to pass this off to someone else," she says. "I don't know if they are seeing what I'm seeing. I've gone through this incredible magical journey of starting something with a feeling and that feeling starts to incept your dreams and your thoughts and the way you see things. And then you get to birth that into reality…it's such an incredible journey to go on."

Naomi Ackie, who plays Frida, concurs, explaining that Kravitz was involved in every aspect of production. "She was taking extra care to make sure - even down to the strands of my hair being in the right place - and what each set looked like in particular that it matched the style of the story. There was a real need for her for everything to be as specific has she had dreamt it up in her mind," Ackie says.