Daniel Kaluuya is taking a seat behind the camera and making his first screenwriting debut. A year after winning the best supporting actor Oscar for Judas and the Black Messiah, the actor is ready to step into the screenwriting world. In his first writing credit, the star has penned the futuristic dystopian drama The Kitchen for Netflix. Stemming from his own original idea, the film is also co-written by Joe Murtagh (Calm with Horses, Gangs of London). Kaluuya will also produce the feature under his 59% Productions banner, while Daniel Emmerson will produce for DMC Film, the production company co-founded by Michael Fassbender. Theo Barrowclough will serve as a co-producer, while Conor McCaughan and Fassbender will serve as executive producers for DMC Film.

The synopsis of the drama goes as follows:

The Kitchen paints a futuristic world in which the gap between rich and poor has been stretched to its limits. Set in London in the year 2044, all forms of social housing have been eradicated, and London’s working classes have been forced to live in temporary accommodation on the outskirts of the city. The Kitchen, however, is the first and the largest of its kind: London’s last village harboring residents that refuse to move on and move out of the place they call home. The story revolves around local residents Izi, who is desperately trying to find a way out, and 12-year-old Benji, who has lost his mother and is searching for a family, as they battle to survive in a system that is stacked against them.

Izi will be played by actor and musician Kane Robinson. Robinson is best known for his starring role in Netflix’s Top Boy series. Benji will be played by young newcomer Jedaiah Bannerman, who was discovered by casting director Aisha Bywaters (The Last Tree, We Are Lady Parts, County Lines).

The Kitchen will also mark the directorial debut of co-creator Kibwe Tavares. Tavares was awarded the Sundance special jury award for his animated short Robots of Brixton. He was also nominated for the Sundance short film grand jury prize for Jonah, starring Kaluuya. He also exec produced the BBC’s sci-fi drama Noughts & Crosses.

The Kitchen Will Explore the Inequalities in Future London

“In 2011, I was in my barbershop and there was a guy boasting about smash and grabs — kids doing million-pound heists in a minute, getting paid £200 to do it. I saw the potential to unlock a unique story door to the inequality, fatherhood, class, joy, resilience, courage, defiance and care of London,” Kaluuya told The Hollywood Reporter. “Now, nearly a decade later, Kibwe Tavares, Daniel Emmerson and I are about to start production, immersing ourselves in a dystopian London that interrogates what ‘care’ means, at home and as a society and the dangers in our future if we stay indifferent to everything around us.”

“The Kitchen is very much a love letter to London, the city that has defined my childhood and ultimately my identity," said Tavaras. “It’s set in an extreme version of our current world; our characters have little choice but to let the city take over them. Through Benji, a 12-year-old in need of care, we explore what we as society lose in the ever-changing and shifting patterns of life, of our cities. This is a film for all the communities out there that are trying to take care of each other.”

“I’ve had the pleasure of producing for Kibwe over the years and couldn’t be happier to now be supporting Kibwe’s debut feature as part of the Netflix U.K. film slate. The Kitchen is ambitious, timely and will showcase the great vision he has as a filmmaker, bringing the exciting world-building and textured nuances from Daniel Kaluuya’s debut feature script to our screen," added Fiona Lamptey, Netflix’ director of U.K. features.

The Kitchen will begin shooting in London and Paris and release globally on Netflix in 2023.