Jennifer Lawrence Returns with Acclaimed Theater Director’s Untitled Film

Jennifer Lawrence plays the lead role in an untitled movie from IAC FILMS and A24. Directed by acclaimed theater director Lila Neugebauer, who makes her feature film debut, the drama has Elizabeth Sanders as the scribe. Scott Rudin and Eli Bush serve as producers, along with Lawrence and Justine Polsky. Lawrence and Polsky produce the movie through their new production company Excellent Cadaver. The untitled movie marks Jennifer Lawrence’s return after announcing a short break from acting a year ago.

More details about the movie are under wraps. The untitled flick is also a revisit for the Lawrence to the indie realm, where the actress got her first major breakthrough ‘Winter’s Bone’ in 2010. According to the latest reports, the principal photography of the movie will start in June in New Orleans. Lawrence’s last releases were Darren Aronofsky’s dark epic ‘Mother!’ and ‘Francis Lawrence’s ‘Red Sparrow.’ She will next be seen in the ‘X-Men’ franchise, ‘Dark Phoenix‘ along with Sophie Turner, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. The Fox  sci-fi adventure will be released on June 7, 2019.

Lawrence announced the short break in 2018 to focus more on activism when she had more than five projects in development. In an interview with ET, the Oscar winner revealed that she wants to work with a non-profit organization fighting corruption. She also added that the aim of the mission is to engage young people in politics on a local level. ‘It doesn’t have anything to do with partisan politics,’ she clarified. ‘It’s just anti-corruption and stuff trying to pass state by state laws that can help prevent corruption, fix our democracy.’ Lawrence has also spoken out about Hollywood’s gender pay gap and experiences as a woman working in the industry. She is best known for her Oscar-winning role in David O. Russell’s ‘Silver Linings Playbook.’ The actress also got three more Oscar nominations for her performances in the movies ‘American Hustle,’ ‘Joy’ and ‘Winter’s Bone.’

On the other hand, Lila Neugebauer, who is tagged as one of the most prolific theater director active now, made her Broadway debut in 2018 with ‘The Waverly Gallery.’ The production was a reboot of the critically acclaimed ‘memory play’ of Kenneth Lonergan, with Elaine May and Lucas Hedges in the lead roles. Rudin and Bush also associated with the project as producers. Neugebauer’s acclaimed off-Broadway productions include Sarah DeLappe’s ‘The Wolves,’ Annie Baker’s ‘The Antipodes,’ Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ ‘Everybody,’ Edward Albee’s ‘At Home at the Zoo,’ and Tracy Letts’ ‘Mary Page Marlowe.’

‘It’s an intimate film that wants to be close to the bone and wants to be quite personal,’ Neugebauer quoted as saying in a THR report. ‘It’s something that I’ve hoped to do and has been in the back of my mind for some time now. I directed my first episode of television last spring, on the Duplass Brothers’ HBO show Room 104. That was a really lovely opportunity to get behind the camera because the throughline of that anthology show is that they’re all set in the same hotel room, so in a way, they’re sort of all one-act plays. It was a very natural fit.’ she added.

Rudin and Bush have a very fruitful working partnership with A24. Together they have delivered movies like ‘Lady Bird,’ ‘Eighth Grade,’ ‘Mid90s,’ and ‘Ex Machina.’ The partners have an impressive lineup of upcoming movies including the Safdie brothers’ ‘Uncut Gems,’ Kelly Reichardt’s ‘First Cow’ and Joel Coen’s ‘Macbeth.’ Rudin and Bush, IAC Films and A24 have also formed a joint production initiative focusing on non-fiction films and TV shows.

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