Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel to Star in David Lowery’s Pop Epic ‘Mother Mary’ for A24

Anne Hathaway and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Michaela Coel will star in Mother Mary, an “epic pop melodrama” that David Lowery is directing for A24, the Oscar-winning studio behind Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The project brings Lowery back into the A24 fold after the filmmaker’s 2021 well-regarded hallucinatory fantasy, The Green Knight and 2017’s A Ghost Story.

Lowery wrote the script for Mary, which the studio describes as an “epic pop melodrama following a fictional musician (Hathaway) and her relationship with an iconic fashion designer (Coel).” 

Lowery, Toby Halbrooks and James M. Johnston will produce alongside Jeanie Igoe of Homebird Productions. Also producing are Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo and Jonathan Saubach of Cologne-based augenschein Filmproduktion. 

The filmmakers have lined up some heavy hitters to come up with the music for the feature. Jack Antonoff, the Bleachers frontman who frequently works with Taylor Swift, and Charli XCX will write and produce original songs for the project. The original score will be composed by Daniel Hart.

A24 will handle the global release of the film. Topic Studios is co-financing.

Mary will be filmed in Germany, funded by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and the DFFF.

Lowery next has Peter Pan & Wendy, a new take on the boy who never grew up, this one starring Jude Law, Alan Tudyk, Molly Parker and Yara Shahidi. The movie this Disney+ April 28.

Hathaway has several movies in the can, including Eileen, which premiered at Sundance, and Mother’s Instinct from Neon.  

Coel is a rising multi-faceted talent who is not only an actress but a playwright, screenwriter, director, showrunner, poet  and author. She created the award-winning British series I May Destroy You and appeared in Wakanda Forever as a key member of the elite warrior group, Dora Milaje. She will next be seen in the Mr. and Mrs. Smith series for Amazon.