Viola Davis has signed on to front director Steve McQueen’s new all-female heist movie.
The filmmaker has teamed up with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn to co-write crime thriller Widows, which centres upon four desperate women who plan a robbery.
The project is based on the cult 1980s British TV series of the same name.
McQueen, who was a big fan of the TV series, has been working on the film since he won a Best Picture Oscar for 12 Years a Slave in 2014. His film adaptation will be set in the U.S. and feature four female leads – two black, one white and one Latina, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Widows isn’t the only all-female heist movie in development in Hollywood – Sarah Paulson recently completed the cast for a reboot of the Ocean’s Eleven movie franchise.
The actress, who picked up an Emmy Award earlier this month (Sep16) for her role in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, will star alongside Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, and rapper/actress Awkwafina in the movie.
The film, titled Ocean’s Eight, will be directed by Gary Ross and produced by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, who directed George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt in the Ocean’s Eleven remake of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin’s 1960 heist caper.
Plot details surrounding Ocean’s Eight are currently under wraps, but much like Soderbergh’s 2001 Ocean’s Eleven movie, the premise revolves around a Las Vegas casino robbery.
Filming on Ocean’s Eight is slated to begin in October (16).
