If you’ve emotionally recovered from Viola Davis‘ appearance in this morning’s debut trailer for Fences, we now have some major news for you. Following up his Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen has been developing an adaptation of the crime drama Widows, based on the British television series. After we brought word that shooting would kick off this fall, the first casting has arriving.
Variety reports that Davis is the first actress to board the film, which comes from a script by McQueen and Gone Girl‘s Gillian Flynn. The story centers on four widows who come together to finish a robbery after their crooked husbands are killed on the job. The other three leads call for one black woman, one white woman, and one Latina woman, but they have yet to be cast. However, Jennifer Lawrence was “approached” to take a part, but she had to pass due to scheduling conflicts.
Set in a modern-day American city, New Regency’s Brad Weston has said, “Steve was interested in doing his own version of a gangster film. It felt fresh to him to combine a contemporary, hard-hitting, very grounded gangster movie with four strong female characters. We loved it because that’s who Steve is. He sees things differently.” He added, “This project gives him the commercial jumping-off point, but then allows him to twist it into a Steve McQueen film.”
Expect a 2017 release for Widows and as we await more casting, check out the full first run of the series below.
Who should join Davis in McQueen’s next film?