Academy Award winner Paolo Sorrentino (Youth, The Young Pope, The Great Beauty) is on board to direct Mob Girl, an upcoming gangster film starring Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Lining’s Playbook, The Sparrow). The movie is based on Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Teresa Carpenter true-crime story Mob Girl: A Woman’s Life in the Underworld, published in 1992.
The book is adapted to the big screen by Angelina Burnett (The Americans, Hannibal) and recounts the real-life story of mob mistress turned police informant Arlyne Brickman. Mob Girl is set in the '50s New York when five mafia families ruled the city. The highly anticipated project is currently in development and is expected to hit cinemas in 2023. Let’s see what we know about it so far.
The Plot: Never Mess With a Vengeful Woman
Mob Girl spans from the 1950s o the 1970s and is an exploration of New York’s mafia scene. The story centers on Arlyne Brickman, a woman who grew up among racketeers and mobsters on the Lower East Side of New York City. She is drawn to the flashy and glittering lifestyle of big-city gangsters. Soon she begins dating “wiseguys” and starts running errands for them.
“From the time she was about fourteen, Arlyne was an active seductress of the underworld and by the time she was twenty, she had slept with upward of fifty hoods from the Lower East Side,” reads an excerpt from the book. “Forever status conscious, she amassed a slate of conquests that included the notorious Bonnano hit man Tony Mirra and, briefly, Joe Colombo. But as Arlyne would learn in her more than thirty years in the underworld, living the mob girl ideal was a considerably tawdrier proposition than imagining it.”
Arlyne met her future husband, Norm, at a doctor’s office while waiting for having an abortion. Soon it turned out that Norm was not only busy doing his cleaning job while away during the day. He was doing minor illegal jobs and having a number of extramarital affairs. Led by vengeance, Arlyne decided to turn him in. She later claimed this was her very first involvement with law enforcement. Soon after, she wanted to play things big, so she put on her high heels, painted her lips red, and hit the mob circuit. Arlyne had no intention to marry any gangster. She wanted to be a mob mistress. A woman who goes out with a married man, knows everything about his business, must keep her mouth zipped, and is paid very well for it. This is how he met mob boss Joe Colombo.
Arlyne slept with members of all five major mafia gangs of New York, including Joe from the infamous and feared Colombo family. She was certain, if she had ever got into trouble, they would have done her a favor and saved her. However, one night a rejected and furious gangster assaulted her in Times Square. She immediately sought help and protection from her mafia connections, but when nothing happened, she decided to get back at them -- all of them. The vengeful Arlyne turned to the police and became an informant and an important witness in the government’s case against the Colombo crime family. Brickman is almost like a female version of Henry Hill from Goodfellas.
“Seeing this story from a woman’s point of view is a fresh and exciting approach to telling a classic mob story,” says Makeready Founder and CEO Brad Weston. “We could not imagine a more perfect team of stellar filmmakers, with Jennifer starring in a tour de force role and Paolo at the helm, to bring Arlyne’s strength and unique perspective to life on screen.”
Cast, Crew & Others Involved
With Mob Girl, Lawrence returns to familiar territory by playing a real-life person. This time it is Arlyne Brickman, mob wife turned police informant. Sorrentino will also produce the project alongside Wildside’s Lorenzo Mieli (My Brilliant Friend) and Lawrence herself. Sorrentino’s latest movie, The Hand of God, is based on the events of Sorrentino's youth and his memories of '80s Naples. His semi-autobiographical film was critically acclaimed and earned a nod at this year’s Academy Awards.
In January 2022, it was confirmed that Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (The Crown, God’s Own Country) is joining Lawrence in the cast. As of now, his role is unknown, but the British actor is currently taking one too many Italian classes to prepare for the part. Lawrence will also serve as a producer on Mob Girl alongside Justine Polsky through their production company Excellent Cadaver. This marks the first collaboration between Makeready and Excellent Cadaver. Lawrence will produce with Justine Polsky, Sorrentino, and Wildside’s Lorenzo Mieli. – MTI reported based on an article published in Il Messaggero.
Release Date
According to Cinecittá, the highly anticipated project is currently in development/ pre-production and is expected to be released in theaters in 2023. The only question I have left is, is it possible to order a good carbonara and a glass of Barbera at the buffet of any movie theater in the U.S.? A mob movie requires mob food.