Victoria Mahoney, the history-making Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker second unit director, is in negotiations to make her big-studio feature directorial debut on Kill Them All, Paramount’s adaptation of a graphic novel by Kyle Starks, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, who count Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as credits, are producing the project, which has a script by James Coyne.
Heat Vision breakdown
Described as a love letter to 1990s action movies, Stark’s Kill Them All tells of a betrayed murderess on a revenge campaign and a hard-drinking former cop who team up to take down a crime lord. Their nemesis rules from atop a 15-story Miami high-rise, so the duo must go floor by floor cutting through assassins, murderers, Luchadore gang bosses, ex-boyfriends and office workers.
The book began as a project seeking funding on Kickstarter before it was picked up by Oni Press.
Mahoney appeared in minor roles in movies and TV shows before making her directorial debut with Yelling at the Sky, a semi-autobiographical indie feature that starred Zoe Kravitz and Jason Clarke and was released in 2012.
She directed episodes of several series such as Power and American Crime but gained prominence when she was hired as Rise of Skywalker’s second unit director, becoming the first woman and first person of color to tackle such a position for the Star Wars franchise. She wrote about that experience and its impact in an essay for THR in December.
In February, Mahoney teamed with Ava DuVernay to adapt Octavia E. Butler's sci-fi novel Dawn as an Amazon Studios drama series. She also directed an episode of Lovecraft Country, the upcoming HBO show from Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams.
She is repped by CAA and Del Shaw.
