Preview:
- Jennifer Lopez will star in ‘The Last Mrs. Parrish.’
- Robert Zemeckis is aboard to direct.
- Netflix is behind the new novel adaptation.
Both Jennifer Lopez and director Robert Zemeckis have had some hard times of late –– especially professionally.
Zemeckis’ most recent movie didn’t exactly perform (more on that below) and Lopez has been beset by issues, including cancelling her most recent tour and less than positive reactions to her self-produced concept movie ‘This Is Me… Now,’ which tied into an album.
6EiyQPfi0iknjMsVl6VNf4They’ll both be hoping for brighter prospects with a new project, which will be based at Netflix, where Lopez has enjoyed some better reviews for her work.
The pair is teaming up for a movie that Lopez will co-produce and star in called ‘The Last Mrs. Parrish,’ with Zemeckis aboard to direct.
Related Article: Tom Hanks Features in First Pictures of Robert Zemeckis’ ‘Here’
What’s the story of ‘The Last Mrs. Parrish’?
The new movie will adapt the 2018 Liv Constantine novel, which follows a con artist (to be played by Lopez) who targets a wealthy couple — the Parrishes — as her next victims.
She infiltrates the pair by befriending the wife and seducing the husband, with the master plan of becoming the next Mrs. Parrish, only to discover that the wife’s life is far more complicated than she could have imagined.
Constantine’s book was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick, has sold more than 1 million copies and been published in about three dozen countries.
Oscar nominees Andrea Berloff and John Gatins are at work on the script, and it marks a reunion for Zemeckis and Gatins, who worked together on the Oscar-nominated Denzel Washington drama ‘Flight.’
Liza Chasin is producing for 3dot Productions along with Molly Sims for Something Happy Productions, while Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina for Nuyorican Productions. Margaret Chernin of 3dot will be executive producers.
Where else can we see Jennifer Lopez?
Aside from the aforementioned ‘This Is Me… Now,’ Lopez has had better luck with movies including Netflix sci-fi thriller ‘Atlas’ and based-on-truth wrestling tale ‘Unstoppable,’ which arrived via Amazon MGM Studios.
Coming up, she has musical drama ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman,’ directed by Bill Condon, which garnered good notices at Sundance and is headed to theaters in an awards-consideration run via Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate and LD Entertainment this fall.
This is what Condon said of the move:
“All of us who made this film believe it needs to be experienced in a theatre, so we’re grateful and excited to be partnering with the very talented folks at Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate Studios, and LD Entertainment to make that happen. On a personal note, this feels like a homecoming –– Lionsgate picked up ‘Gods and Monsters’ out of Sundance in 1998, and I’ve worked with them and Roadside on three other films since then.”
Currently, she’s shooting Netflix’s ‘Office Romance’ opposite Brett Goldstein, Betty Gilpin, and Jodie Whittaker.
It’s the story of Jackie, President and CEO of Air Cruz, who runs a tight ship in her business, including a rigid anti-fraternization policy for all her employees.
When a new sexy lawyer begins working for her, that policy becomes very tested. That one doesn’t have a release date on the books yet.
Lopez also has ‘The Godmother,’ a crime drama about the rise and fall of the late drug lord Griselda Blanco, at the scripting stage.
What else is Robert Zemeckis working on?
Zemeckis, a respected filmmaker who has crafted some of the most memorable movies including ‘Forrest Gump,’ the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy, ‘Contact’ and ‘Cast Away,’ hasn’t had the best of luck with more recent releases.
‘Welcome to Marwen’ didn’t do great business, and his remake of ‘The Witches’ was widely panned. More recently, experimental drama ‘Here,’ despite boasting a ‘Forrest Gump’ reunion with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright leading the cast and a compelling visual hook of being set in one room that changes over time, also flopped at the box office.
He has a new animated series called ‘Tooned Out’ at the Max streaming service and a variety of projects in development as either director or producer, including action biopic ‘The King’ and sci-fi drama ‘Ares.’
When will ‘The Last Mrs. Parrish’ arrive on screens?
Netflix has not yet announced a release date for the movie –– which, if it follows the pattern of other recent Lopez projects for the company, will debut on its servers rather than in theaters.
List Robert Zemeckis Movies:
- ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand‘ (1978)
- ‘Used Cars‘ (1980)
- ‘Romancing the Stone‘ (1984)
- ‘Back to the Future‘ (1985)
- ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit‘ (1988)
- ‘Back to the Future Part II‘ (1989)
- ‘Back to the Future Part III‘ (1990)
- ‘Death Becomes Her‘ (1992)
- ‘Forrest Gump‘ (1994)
- ‘Contact‘ (1997)
- ‘Cast Away‘ (2000)
- ‘What Lies Beneath‘ (2000)
- ‘The Polar Express‘ (2004)
- ‘Beowulf‘ (2007)
- ‘A Christmas Carol‘ (2009)
- ‘Flight‘ (2012)
- ‘The Walk‘ (2015)
- ‘Allied‘ (2016)
- ‘Welcome to Marwen‘ (2018)
- ‘Roald Dahl’™s The Witches‘ (2020)
- ‘Pinocchio‘ (2022)
- ‘Here‘ (2024)
