Michelle Monaghan may be stepping into the courtroom. The Golden Globe-nominated actress is in negotiations to star in “Saint Judy,” a biopic about LA immigration attorney Judy Wood, Deadline reports. Wood argued a game-changing case that led to altered asylum laws for women coming into the U.S. Alfred Molina (“Feud”) will co-star in the drama.
Wood moved to LA as a single mother in her mid-30s and entered law school “after having a vision about it,” Deadline writes. She immediately committed to working in immigration law, and specifically asylum cases. Wood is best known for a landmark case involving an “Afghani immigrant woman who had been persecuted for opening up a school for girls in her home country.” She “fought a tenacious battle in and out of court against established law, and the case ended up before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The result of many years of fighting for the schoolteacher resulted in Wood single-handedly changing the law of asylum nationwide, allowing women to be designated a protected class.”
Wood didn’t just save her client’s life — the ruling saved “thousands of other female refugees who would have been sent back to their home countries where they faced certain death.”
Scheduled to start filming May 10, “Saint Judy” doesn’t seem to have many women in key roles behind the scenes. While the film centers on a female trailblazer, a male director, Sean Hanish (“Sister Cities”), is locked in, and the source reports that he’ll be be producing alongside two other men, Cannonball Productions’ Paul Jaconi-Biery and executive producer Kelly Kahl (“Return to Zero”). According to Deadline, Cannonball Productions acquired Wood’s life rights and “developed the story with writer Dmitry Portnoy. Wood had a number of interns working with her over the years, and Portnoy was one of them while he was in Pepperdine law school.”
We totally support men, and not just women, telling female-led stories. The world needs more films about girls and women, and we’re happy to see men in the industry making female-centric content. But it’s always disheartening and frustrating to see projects where women seem absent except onscreen — especially those that center on women in leadership roles.
Monaghan received a Golden Globe nod in 2015 for “True Detective.” She currently stars in Hulu’s “The Path,” which was recently renewed for a third season. The Jessica Goldberg-created drama centers on the followers of Meyerism, a fictional religion. “The Best of Me,” “Somewhere,” and “Made of Honor” are among her other credits.
