Dakota Johnson to direct her first feature! Former Co-star Vanessa Burghardt to write the Script
‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ actress Dakota Johnson has revealed that she will be making her first feature film debut and the script has been available for a while at the Cannes Film Festival. Speaking at the Kering Women at Motion, Dakota revealed that Vanessa Burghardt from her 2022 Romantic Comedy ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ where Burghardt played the role of Lola.
Dakota Johnson is preparing to make her feature directorial debut from a script written by her "Cha Cha Real Smooth" co-star Vanessa Burghardt.
— Variety (@Variety) May 19, 2025
"I feel very protective of her… that's kind of the thing I just don't think I could allow anyone else to direct it."… pic.twitter.com/880lYEtBdq
Dakota has already ventured into direction with her short, ‘Loser Baby’ last year that premiered at TIFF. The Queer Drama that has Talia Bernstein writing and starred in the flick was not well received as much as Dakota expected with a TV adaptation was not picked.
Dakota Johnson revealed that Burghardt “The girl that plays my daughter [in Cha Cha Real Smooth], Vanessa Burkhart, she is an autistic actress and musician and brilliant person, and we have been working with her on developing a script. She’s written a script, and it’s really special, and it’s about a young woman with autism. I feel very protective of her and her story in her mind, she’s just an unbelievable woman. I just don’t think I could allow anyone else to direct it. So we’ll see”, Deadline reports.
Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona stun at the #Cannes photocall for "Splitsville." https://t.co/e8J6XIhB7X pic.twitter.com/BYrfqt5dRN
— Variety (@Variety) May 19, 2025
Dakota was seen at Cannes as a Co-producer and as an actor of Michael Angelo Covino’s ‘Splitsville’ that also similar to ‘Loser Baby’ explores relationships, complexities and about sexuality where Johnson plays a woman in an open relationship helping out her friend to overcome a breakup.
The ‘How to be Single’ actress is leading the Celine Song movie ‘Materialists’ along with Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans where she is playing a New York Matchmaker who gets the dreamy and charismatic partner that she deserves while her Ex-boyfriend stumbles into her life, leaving her questioning her options. She is also booked by Michael Showalter for ‘Verity’ adaptation as Lowen Ashleigh alongside Josh Hartnett and Anne Hathaway.
