Bleecker Street has taken the North American rights to Catherine Hardwicke’s action-comedy Mafia Mamma, to star Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci and Rob Huebel.
The movie, to start production in May 2022 in Italy, follows a suburban American woman who inherits her grandfather’s mafia empire and exceeds all expectations as the new head of the family business, including her own. Collette plays Kristin, whose only son wants to leave college, her boss is a sexist pig and she caught her unsuccessful musician husband (Huebel) cheating with a groupie.
That’s when a life-changing phone call comes from Bianca, played by Bellucci, her estranged grandfather’s trusted consigliere who tells her he is dead and she must attend the funeral in Italy. Guided by Bianca, Kristin takes the reins of the organization to find out what she is made of.
Mafia Mamma is produced by Collette’s Vocab Films, IDEA(L) and New Sparta Production, and is based on an original idea by French novelist, screenwriter and filmmaker Amanda Sthers. Debbie Jhoon and Michael J. Feldman penned the screenplay.
The film will reunite Hardwicke, Collette and New Sparta’s Christopher Simon, who previously worked together on the comedy Miss You Already. Drew Barrymore. Andrew Karpen and Kent Sanderson from Bleecker Street are executive producers.
The film acquisition deal was brokered between Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy of Bleecker Street with CAA Media Finance. Cornerstone is handling international sales.
