Oscar winner Jessica Chastain and Chris Pine are teaming for a prestige project launching at the upcoming European Film Market.
“This Is Pleasure,” based on Mary Gaitskill’s novella, will be directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, the married filmmaking duo who earned an Oscar nomination for 2003 comedy drama “American Splendor” and directed episodes of “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” “Succession” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
The film follows Margot (Chastain) as accusations of misconduct unravel the career of her closest friend, the charming publisher Quin (Pine). Margot must decide whether loyalty, forgiveness or truth will define the end of their long, heady friendship.
Nina Raine adapted the screenplay from Gaitskill’s novella, which was hugely acclaimed when it was released in 2019 and praised for offering a nuanced distillation of the #MeToo movement. Gaitskill previously saw her short story “Secretary” — taken from her 1988 collection “Bad Behavior — adapted into 2002’s now cult BDSM romance starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader.
“This Is Pleasure” is a Fremantle production from Killer Films’ Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler (“May December,” “Materialists”) with Chastain’s Freckle Films and Pine’s Barry Linen Motion Pictures also producing.
CAA Media Finance and The Veterans are handling worldwide sales and will introduce the project at EFM.
Chastain is represented by CAA, Mosaic, imPRint and Hansen, Jacobson; Pine is represented by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Viewpoint and Gendler, Kelly & Cunningham; Berman and Pulcini are represented by CAA and Anonymous Content. Raine is represented by CAA and United Agents. Gaitskill is represented by CAA and The Wylie Agency. Vachon, Koffler and Killer Films are represented by CAA, Cinetic Media and Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo.
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
From Variety US