Nikyatu Jusu’sSuicide by Sunlightis getting a feature-length adaptation from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. In 2022,Nanny, Jusu’s screenwriting and directing feature film debut, was the firsthorror filmto win the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.
Deadlinereports that writer, director, Assistant Professor in Film and Video, andVanguard Award honoree Nikyatu Jusu’s short vampire filmSuicide by Sunlight, which debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, is being adapted into a feature-length production by Jordan Peele’s company, Monkeypaw Productions.
“My project with Monkeypaw is an expansion of a short film I made calledSuicide by Sunlight,” Jusu toldDeadline, “about day-walking Black vampires who are protected from the sun by their melanin.”
Set in a near-future New York City, the original short tells the story of Valentina (Natalie Paul), who “is forced to suppress her bloodlust to regain custody of her estranged daughters.” However, it is unclear how much the feature-length film will follow the original storyline.
Jusu is writing the feature film screenplay with Fredrica Bailey, who co-wrote the Netflix filmSee You Yesterday. Bailey, along with co-writer Stefon Bristol, won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for the Netflix project.
Watch the originalSuicide by Sunlightshort film below:
Related:Exclusive: Anna Diop Says She Hopes Nanny Generates Deeper Empathy for Immigrant Workers
On June 15, 2025,Deadlineannounced that Village Roadshow Pictures had partnered with Chris Romero and the late George A. Romero’s Sanibel Films, Origin Story, Vertigo, and Westbrook Studios in the hopes of creating a new franchise from 1968’sNight of the Living Dead. At the time, it was also announced that the first film would be directed by Jusu, with a story written byThe Walking Dead’s LaToya Morgan.
In a recent interview with the outlet, Jusu, who, when she was awarded the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 2022 forNanny, became only the second Black woman director ever to win the award, noted the importance of Romero’s zombie classics - and not just because how the director’s film’s revolutionized how we see monsters in a literal sense, but also in how his film’s approached social issues, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. “The original made social commentary about racism and classism and all the -isms, and the best zombie films make commentary on humanity,” noted the director. “I have the blessing from…George Romero’s estate, and so that feels really good because it feels organic.”
