Steve McQueen, the acclaimed filmmaker behind Hunger, Shame and the Oscar-winning 12 Years Slave, has a new film project that looks to be attracting an A-list pedigree. Variety dropped the story that Viola Davis is attached to headline McQueen’s upcoming heist film Widows. The title, set up at New Regency, with See-Saw Films producing and Film 4 co-financing, is based on a 1983 British mini-series and has Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) set to pen the screenplay.
Revolving around a caper gone awry, Widows follows four armed robbers who end up dead in a botched robbery, leaving their widows to get the job finished. Earlier reports suggested that Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence was being sought for one of the roles in the film, however scheduling conflicts with the Passengers star appear to have forced her to withdraw from participating. Aside from today’s announcement of Davis joining the film, no other casting announcements have been publicly made thus far. The film would mark McQueen’s first trip behind the camera since directing the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave – since then, he was crafting the HBO limited series Code of Conduct, a series that has no been shelved.
Davis’s casting announcement in Widows marks another high-wattage project for the 2-time Oscar nominated actress. She was mostly recently seen on screens in the blockbuster Suicide Squad (earning strong reviews in the process, despite the divisive take on the picture as whole) and is currently back on her ABC drama How to Get Away With Murder, a role that earned her a historic Emmy Award last year. Davis may be a part of the Oscar conversation this year with Fences, an adaptation of the classic August Wilson play in which she co-stars opposite Denzel Washington (who directs the film). Both Davis and Washington appeared in a recent Broadway revival of Fences and earned widespread praise as well as Tony Awards.
No production start date nor release date have been confirmed for Widows as of yet.
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