Society’s fascination with dark pop star stories isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. On the heels of 2018’s Natalie Portman-starring Vox Lux, HBO and The Weeknd’s forthcoming The Idol, and Donald Glover’s Beyoncé-stan skewering Swarm comes a new entry into the category.
A24 has announced Mother Mary, a new film from Green Knight director David Lowery billed as an “epic pop melodrama” following a fictional musician (Anne Hathaway) and her relationship with an iconic fashion designer (I May Destroy You’s Michaela Coel), Deadline reports.
The all-star casting has already piqued interest online, which is further buoyed by the involvement of Charli XCX and producer-to-the-pop-stars Jack Antonoff. Charli and Antonoff will write and produce original songs for the film, with an original score composed by Daniel Hart. Mother Mary will be filmed in Germany with a release date still to be determined.
Hathaway most recently starred in a gritty adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen that had a critically-acclaimed premiere at Sundance; she’ll also star in Mother’s Instinct with Jessica Chastain and an Amazon film, The Idea of You, later this year. We also know that Hathaway will be able to handle whatever vocal necessasties the part requires. She previously won the Oscar for her part in the musical Les Misérables.
Coel shot to fame following the release of her hit TV series, I May Destroy You, for which she became the first Black woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Writing. She also starred in last year’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and this year she’ll also appear in Donald Glover’s remake of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
The fictional and documentary obsession with the stories of great musical figures has always been part of the culture, from A Star Is Born’s generational installments to Behind the Music. After the #FreeBritney movement spawned two separate docu-series (and endless TikToks) on the pop singer’s plight, the journeys of female pop stars in particular remain a tried and true area to mine for stories. Stay tuned for further details on Mother Mary and this latest iteration of pop melodrama.
