Jennifer Lawrence will star in “Marita,” Sony’s movie about Marita Lorenz, who had an affair with Fidel Castro and was involved in the CIA’s assassination attempt on the Cuban leader.
Sony has acquired Lorenz’s life rights. The studio acquired a pitch from Eric Warren Singer (“American Hustle”) that was developed with a quartet of producers — Lawrence, Scott Mednick, Andre Rouleau and Matt Tolmach.
Lawrence received her fourth Academy Award nomination last week for “Joy” after winning a Golden Globe for the role. She won the Best Actress Oscar for The Weinstein Company’s “Silver Linings Playbook” and received nominations for Sony’s “American Hustle” and “Winter’s Bone.”
Sony won a bidding war for the Lorenz rights against Universal, Warner Bros., Fox, Paramount and Lionsgate.
Lorenz, a native of Germany, was incarcerated at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II. After she had an affair at the age of 19 with Castro, she was approached by the CIA to kill the Cuban leader.
Lorenz later testified before Congress in the JFK investigations, claiming that she was witness to a conspiracy between the CIA, Cuban operatives and Lee Harvey Oswald to murder the president, and even spied for the FBI on UN diplomats who lived in her building.
Ange Giannetti will oversee for the project for the studio.
Lorenz wrote a 1993 autobiography “Marita: One Woman’s Extraordinary Tale of Love and Espionage from Castro to Kennedy” and a second autobiography “Lieber Fidel – Mein Leben, meine Liebe, mein Verrat” in 2001. Her story was the inspiration for the 1999 TV film “My Little Assassin.”
Lawrence will next be seen in “X-Men: Apocalypse” and the sci-fi drama “Passengers” opposite Chris Pratt. She’s attached to Darren Aronofsky’s untitled project for Paramount and to Steven Spielberg’s film “It’s What I Do” about a female war photographer.
Lawrence is repped by CAA. Singer is represented by UTA and attorney Mark Gochman.
The news was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter.
