Jennifer Lawrence has found time to line up her next project while filming theater director Lila Neugebauer’s feature debut. The Oscar-winning actress will topline and produce an adaptation of “Mob Girl” for Makeready. Variety confirmed the news.
Based on Teresa Carpenter’s Pulitzer Prize-winning true-crime story, the feature centers on Arlyne Brickman, a “mob wife turned police informant.” After growing up “among racketeers on the Lower East Side of New York City where she [was] drawn to the glamorous and flashy lifestyle of New York mobsters,” Brickman began “dating ‘wiseguys’ and running errands for them, before getting in on the action herself — eventually becoming a police informant and a major witness in the government’s case against the Colombo crime family,” the source details.
Angelina Burnett (“The Americans”) is penning the script, and Paolo Sorrentino (“The Young Pope”) is directing.
“Seeing this story from a woman’s point of view is a fresh and exciting approach to telling a classic mob story,” says Makeready Founder and CEO, Brad Weston. “We could not imagine a more perfect team of stellar filmmakers, with Jennifer starring in a tour de force role and Paolo at the helm, to bring Arlyne’s strength and unique perspective to life on screen.”
Details are scarce about Lawrence’s collaboration with Neugebauer, A24’s “Untitled Soldier Film.” She’s signed on to star as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in “Bad Blood,” a biopic of the controversial Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
Lawrence won an Oscar for “Silver Linings Playbook” and received nods for “Joy,” “American Hustle,” and “Winter’s Bone.” “Dark Phoenix,” “Red Sparrow,” and “Mother!” are among her recent credits.
Another female-led mob story on our radar is “The Kitchen,” Andrea Berloff’s feature directorial debut. Set in 1978 Hell’s Kitchen, the crime drama stars Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss. “The Kitchen” hits theaters August 9.