Melissa McCarthy is in talks to star in the thriller Turpentine. The film is from director Craig Zobel. For McCarthy, this new project represents a shift in genre. She is known primarily as a comedian.
The film is from a script by Justin Varava. It made the 2024 Black List. The story follows a deadbeat son. He recruits friends to rob his own parents. He needs cash to pay off a bookie. His plan goes awry.
It’s a grim, taut setup. Focused on how bad choices spiral out of control. Varava has written for the Disney Channel before. Including on Wizards of Waverly Place and Bizaardvark. So this is a far cry from his previous work.
If the script is anything like the Black List entry, it clearly resonated with readers. It found a home before the news broke. A day before the official announcement, a rumor circulated on Twitter. Connor Storrie is also rumored to be attached. As the son, the focal character. That is not officially confirmed.
Zobel is a fit for this kind of material.
He came up with the likes of Compliance and Z for Zachariah. He subsequently moved on to prestige television. Including The Leftovers and American Gods. And also Westworld and Mare of Easttown.
He just finished directing the critically acclaimed series The Penguin. He is a DGA Award winner and three-time Emmy nominee. His other credits include directing the satirical horror film The Hunt starring Betty Gilpin and Hilary Swank.
T-Street and ShivHans Pictures will handle production. Both companies are prolific in the worlds of mainstream films and indie projects. T-Street is run by Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman and is coming off the production of Wake Up Dead Man.
That’s the third film in the Knives Out franchise. Other coming projects include The Only Living Pickpocket in New York and A Place in Hell. Recent credits for ShivHans Pictures include Ice Road: Vengeance, The Wedding Banquet, Winner, and The Assessment.
For McCarthy, this adds to a busy slate. She is set to appear in the series Unspeakable: The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey. She and Clive Owen will be playing the parents. Netflix also just nabbed the adaptation of Miss Nelson Is Missing, with McCarthy as the star.
Her Oscar-nominated performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me? proved she could carry serious material. Turpentine looks like another opportunity. No production timeline is announced yet.
