Jennifer Lawrence Launches Excellent Cadaver Producing Shingle, Sets First Look Deal With Makeready
EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Lawrence has launched a new production company, Excellent Cadaver, and she has made a first-look film deal with Makeready where she and producing partner Justine Polsky will develop movie projects and star vehicles for the Oscar-winning actress. Makeready and Excellent Cadaver will produce them independently or through Makeready’s output deals with Universal Pictures and Entertainment One. Makeready principal and Head of Film Pam Abdy will oversee them.
After winning her Best Actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook and being nominated for three other performances, Lawrence takes the next step in her career progression, which is to accelerate the pace of crafting vehicles. She and Polsky have been doing that piecemeal, developing as producer-star dramas that include Burial Rites with director Luca Guadagnino at TriStar and Bad Blood with Adam McKay at Universal, the latter of which has her attached to star as disgraced Theranos blood testing founder Elizabeth Holmes. She is attached to play socialite Zelda Fitzgerald in the Ron Howard-directed Zelda, producing with Polsky and others, and is developing to direct Project Delirium, about how the government tested the effects of chemical weapons on thousands of soldiers in the ’60s.
“In a relatively short amount of time, Jennifer has already proven herself to be a one-of-a-kind actress and businesswoman,” says Makeready founder and CEO Brad Weston. “Her versatility and commitment to working with the greatest filmmakers in the industry highlights our shared ambition to create thoughtful, fearless films, and we are extremely excited to partner with Jennifer and Justine as they start this new chapter.”
Said Lawrence and Polsky: “Brad and Pam are visionary producers with incredible taste and a history of supporting diverse and compelling storytelling. We are thrilled to be partnering with Makeready and look forward to this exciting collaboration.”
Weston launched Makeready in 2017 as an independent film, TV and digital branded entertainment content studio. Makeready bowed the Sam Taylor-Johnson-directed A Million Little Pieces at Toronto and among its many upcoming projects is Queen & Slim, written by Emmy-winner Lena Waithe for Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya to star and Melina Matsoukas to direct, the Hulu drama series Old City Blues, which Kerry Washington is starring in and executive producing, and Snapchat’s first original scripted series, Class of Lies.
Lawrence next reprises her Mystique character in Dark Phoenix, the Simon Kinberg-directed X-Men: First Class sequel that Fox releases June 7, 2019. Lawrence is repped by LBI Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson.
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