Exclusive: Lone Sherfig Attached to Jessica Biel's Mob Girl
What a distressing morning. I discovered that John Cusack is on Twitter. The distressing part: He can’t spell; he doesn’t care that he can’t spell; and if 140 characters or less is any indication, he’s not as bright as his persona would suggest. More troubling: He actually responds to bullshit call-outs from Perez Hilton. Hey celebrities: Stay off Twitter. Nothing good can come of it. You embarrass yourselves. We want to think of you as characters in movies, not illiterate high-school drop-outs who excessively use ALL CAPS. All it does is demystify you, and when you start responding to people who insult you on Twitter, you sound petty. Really fucking petty. (Rule does not apply to Elizabeth Banks, who is great on Twitter).
That has absolutely nothing to do with this news, however. It is this: Jessica Biel is set to star in and produce Mob Girl, which is based on the true story of a mob mistress, Arlyne Brickman, who was raped by several Mafia wiseguys and who, in turn, infiltrated the mafia and turned state’s evidence. Evidence she helped to collect helped to put away Anthony Scarpati.
That project is currently out to writers, but the somewhat cool news is this: Lone Sherfig is attached to direct. Sherfig, the Danish director of An Education, is something of a hot commodity in Hollywood right now. She recently signed on to direct a romantic comedy, One Day, with Anne Hathaway, based on a David Nicholls novel. Given the current state of Mob Girl (searching for a writer), it may be some time before she gets around to this project, but it sounds like an intense Mafia drama that could some decent dramatic legitimacy, if she pulls off the role.
Here’s the synopsis from the book the movie looks to be based on, Teresa Carpenter’s Mob Girl”
From an early age, Arlyn Brickman associated with petty and some not so petty racketeering figures, starting with her grandmother and father. Intoxicated by the glamour and flash, she made herself “indispensable” to wiseguys by running errands, carrying packages, or offering her home as a meeting place or safe haven—not to mention the dozens of mob figures with whom she slept. Before long, she vaulted from an adjunct role into the thick of bookmaking, loansharking, and drug dealing. Over a 30-year career, she had eight abortions and endured beatings, humiliations, and a brutal rape, eventually becoming a government informant and witness.
