‘Sex Criminals’ Taps Nia DaCosta To Direct Pilot & Second Episode Of Prime Video Series Based On Comic

Hedda writer-director Nia DaCosta has been tapped to direct the pilot and second episode of Sex Criminals, Prime Video‘s series adaptation of Image Comics’ title that hails from Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani, Tze Chun, LuckyChap and Amazon MGM Studios. DaCosta also will executive produce. The news was revealed Monday during Amazon’s Upfront presentation in New York City.

Imogen Poots and John Reynolds star in the eight-episode series, co-created by Gordon, Nanjiani and Chun. Poots stars as Suze, a normal girl with an extraordinary ability: when she has sex, she stops time. One night, she meets Jon (Reynolds)… who has the same gift. And so they do what any other sex-having, time-stopping couple would do: they rob banks.

Nanjiani, who will also appear in the series, Gordon and Chun serve as showrunners and will executive produce the series based on the comic, written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Chip Zdarsky, which was originally published in 2013.

Gordon, Nanjiani and Dani Melia exec produce via Winter Coat Films alongside Chun, Dani Gorin for LuckyChap and Fraction and Zdarsky. Louie Hayes from LuckyChap is a producer.

DaCosta wrote, directed, and produced the critically acclaimed Hedda, a visceral and stylized reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play Hedda Gabler, starring Tessa Thompson in the titular role. She most recently directed 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the second chapter in Sony’s newly expanded trilogy starring Ralph Fiennes. DaCosta directed and co-wrote The Marvels, becoming both the youngest filmmaker and the first Black woman to helm a Marvel Studios feature. Before that, she helmed Candyman, which made her the first Black female director to open No. 1 at the U.S. box office. She won the Nora Ephron Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival for her debut feature Little Woods. DaCosta is repped by CAA, Entertainment 360, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang.