Cannes 2012: Lily Rabe to Play Silent Film Star Mary Pickford on Screen

Lily Rabe will play silent film star and pioneering Hollywood producer Mary Pickford in a currently untitled movie that producers Julie Pacino and Jennifer DeLia are assembling.

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Josh Fagin is writing the screenplay for the project, based on Eileen Whitfield’s biography Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood. Pacino and DeLia, who will produce under their Poverty Row Entertainment banner, along with Said Zahraoui, are currently in Cannes while they go about casting such other iconic roles as Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith.

“Meeting Lily really sealed the deal as not only did she already know a lot about Pickford but also, we were instantly able to visually place Lily in that time, right into Mary’s shoes,” said DeLia, who is also directing.