Jennifer Lopez has signed up to star in director Lorene Scafaria’s “Hustlers,” a fact-based movie about some enterprising New York City strippers, for Annapurna Pictures.
The film is inspired by Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine article “The Hustlers at Scores,” which details a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.
Lopez will play ringleader to the group of ambitious women who take their plans of getting their full cut too far. Scafaria’s script takes place in the late aughts in New York City in the wake of the financial crisis and explores the toll it took on the livelihood of the dancers who relied on their Wall Street clientele. The story will also focus on themes of identity, loyalty, survival and control.
“The film is an empathetic look at women and men, our gender roles, what we’re valued for, what we’ve been told is our value in every movie, TV show, every corner of culture,” Scafaria said in a statement. “Men have been told they’re worth the size of their bank accounts. Women have been told they’re worth the symmetry of their faces, their bodies, their beauty and that’s what this film is based on. The rules of the club are the rules of the world.”
Annapurna and Gloria Sanchez are producing with Scafaria co-producing.
Lopez and producing partner, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas will executive produce along with associate producer Alexandra Brown.
Lopez is repped by CAA and Hirsch Wallenstein. Scafaria is repped by UTA.