Jacki Weaver is joining the party.
The Oscar-nominated actress is in negotiations to play Melissa McCarthy’s mom in the New Line comedy Life of the Party. McCarthy wrote the film with husband Ben Falcone.
The college-set movie is being likened to Rodney Dangerfield’s 1986 comedy Back to School, which followed a man who joined his son at college.
Animal Kingdom actress Molly Gordon will play McCarthy’s onscreen daughter (and following logic, Weaver’s granddaughter), with Community alum Gillian Jacobs starring as a sorority sister.
Falcone will direct the project, which is set to begin production sometime in August in Atlanta. Chris Henchy (Daddy’s Home) is producing, with David Siegel acting as executive producer. Life of the Party is set to hit theaters May 11, 2018.
Weaver can currently be seen on both the big and small screens in Drake Doremus‘ dystopian love story Equals and season two of the Starz series Blunt Talk. Up next for the actress is James Franco’s true-life comedy The Masterpiece and Jack Black’s musical biopic The Polka King.
Weaver is repped by ICM Partners, Elevate and Felker Toczek.
