EXCLUSIVE: We can tell you first that Jennifer Lopez is reteaming with Netflix again, this time she will star and produce the action feature The Mother which Mulan director Niki Caro is in talks to direct.
Lopez will play a deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men. I’m told that the project is in the spirit of the Luc Besson classic The Professional.
Lovecraft Country creator Misha Green penned the original screenplay with revisions by Straight Outta Compton‘s Andrea Berloff.
Lopez is producing with Elaine Goldsmith Thomas for Nuyorican Productions; Benny Medina; Roy Lee and Miri Yoon for Vertigo Entertainment; as well as Green. Catherine Hagedorn will serve as EP with Courtney Baxter as Associate Producer.
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As previously announced, Lopez is starring in and producing the Netflix adaptation of the Isabella Maldonado novel The Cipher. In that movie, Lopez will play FBI agent Nina Guerrera, who is pulled into a serial killer’s case after he leaves complex codes and riddles online, which are linked to his recent murders.
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Lopez recently performed at the U.S. Presidential Inauguration of Joe Biden. She is currently filming Lionsgate’s Shotgun Wedding, and will be seen in Universal’s musical-driven romantic comedy Marry Me with Owen Wilson which is set for theatrical release on May 14. In 2019, Lopez scored her biggest domestic opening for a live-action feature at the box office and stateside hit with STX’s Hustlers ($33.1M opening, $105M domestic B.O.), a role which earned her a second Golden Globe nomination, as well as a supporting actress SAG nom. She is repped by CAA, The Medina Co., and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman.
Caro directed Disney’s live action feature adaptation of its classic animated feature Mulan which was released last year in cinemas abroad and on Disney+ streaming services. The movie in its first week in Nielsen streaming ratings accumulated 525 million minutes of viewing. Caro’s 2002 feature Whale Rider won a Best Feature Film BAFTA in the Children’s Award section and earned a Lead Actress Oscar nomination for Keisha Castle-Hughes. Caro also directed North Country and The Zookeeper’s Wife. She is set to helm Amblin Partners’ Beautiful Ruins based on the Jess Walter’s New York Times bestseller. She is also directing three episodes of the Amazon musical series Daisy Jones & The Six. Caro is repped by UTA and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols.
Green is represented by CAA and Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finkelstein & Lezcano.