Screenwriter Andrea Berloff will direct and adapt female-driven mob drama “The Kitchen” for New Line, TheWrap has learned.
The film will be the directorial debut for the Academy Award-nominated “Straight Outta Compton” screenwriter.
“The Kitchen” is based on the comic book series by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle for Vertigo from DC Entertainment.
It is described as a classic gangster story told from a fresh POV. When a group of Irish mobsters are sent to prison, their wives take over their jailed spouses’ organized crime operations, subverting gender tropes to become the most ruthless and powerful gangsters in 1970’s Hell’s Kitchen.
Berloff started out in Hollywood as an assistant to New Line co-founder Bob and Eva Shaye. She later was hired her to write “Straight Outta Compton” when the film was still in development at New Line. The project was put into turnaround and ultimately was later made by Universal, which released the film in 2015.
“I am beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to direct a film that is fiercely, unapologetically female-driven,” Berloff said in a statement. “Having started my career as an assistant to Eva and Bob Shaye, embarking on this journey with New Line is truly a surreal dream.”
Berloff is repped by CAA and Management 360.
The hiring is a step forward for gender diversity when only 7 percent of directors of the top 250 domestic grossing films last year were women, down from 9 percent in 2015, according to the 19th annual Celluloid Ceiling report by Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. (While the difference is just 2 percentage points year over year, the drop in raw numbers is a more alarming 22 percent.)
The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news of Berloff’s involvement.