SZA will make her acting debut in a new comedy.
The ‘Snooze’ hitmaker is set to team up with ‘Nope’ actress Keke Palmer for the currently-untitled buddy film for TriStar Pictures, which will be directed by Lawrence Lamont from a script written by his ‘Rap Sh!t’ showrunner Syreeta Singleton
Issa Rae is among the producers for the project, for which plot details are being kept under wraps.
SZA and Keke previously teamed up together on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in December 2022, when the 30-year-old actress was the host and the ‘Nobody Gets Me’ singer was the musical guest.
The news comes just two weeks after it was revealed Keke is in talks for another movie, Stefano Sollima’s action thriller ‘Gods Unknown.
The film takes place in Central Africa as a political-religious movement, spearheaded by a warlord who is rumoured to have supernatural powers, gains momentum.
A sceptical CIA dispatches an analyst and a squad of elite special ops personnel to establish the truth about the enigmatic leader and their followers.
Keke will play the role of Kate Vance, an agent with the CIA’s political action group.
Andrew Barrer and Gabe Ferrari have penned the script for the new movie.
Meanwhile, Keke had to deny plans that she was going to retire after she hinted earlier this year that she could quit showbiz sooner rather than later – although she later explained that she merely wished to explore other avenues of her career before stepping back.
She said: “People took that literally, but I was thinking in like 20 years! But also, what I will say is I meant a different type of ‘slowing down.’ I think there’s a version of me that really wants to do more producing, that really wants to do more directing, that wants to do even more work, not only in front of the camera.”
Keke – who rose to fame as a teenager when she featured in the Nickelodeon series ‘True Jackson, VP’ – said that even when she does opt to “slow down”, she will remain in the entertainment industry in some form.
She said: “I’ll be still doing stuff, but I don’t know if I’m going to always want to be doing three movies a year. That’s amazing. Thank god I am doing that. But I don’t know if I always want to be doing it at that level or that way.”