Rising star Gugu Mbatha-Raw has booked yet another gig. Variety reports that the “Miss Sloane” actress will star alongside “Game of Thrones’” Michiel Huisman in “Irreplaceable You,” a romantic drama. The project will mark “Veep” helmer Stephanie Laing’s feature directorial debut.
Penned by actress Bess Wohl (“CSI: NY”), the film follows Abbie and Sam, “soul mates who were destined to be together until death got in the way.”
Production for the tearjerker is scheduled to kick off sometime next month. (Hopefully you have some tissues left after watching Mbatha-Raw’s “Black Mirror” episode, “San Junipero.”) Jonathan Tropper and Farah Abushwesha are producing.
We’re huge fans of two women-directed romantic dramas Mbatha-Raw previously starred in: Amma Asante’s “Belle” and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Beyond the Lights.” Set in 18th century England, “Belle” saw her playing Dido Elizabeth Belle, the mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral and a slave. The film is based on a true story, and focuses on the romance between Belle and an aspiring lawyer who is white. In “Beyond the Lights,” she portrayed an award-winning pop star overwhelmed by the pressures of fame. The superstar develops an intense bond with a police officer after he interrupts her suicide attempt.
Mbatha-Raw voices Plumette in Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” reboot, out March 17. Her other upcoming projects include Julia Hart’s thriller “Fast Color” and Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved children’s book “A Wrinkle in Time.”