Jennifer Lawrence‘s dance card continued to fill up on Tuesday, as A24 announced that it has optioned Paul B. Rainey‘s graphic novel Why Don’t You Love Me?, tapping Lawrence to star and Robert Funke (On Becoming a God in Central Florida) to pen the feature adaptation.
The news comes a few weeks following word that Lawrence will produce and star in The Wives, a Real Housewives-inspired murder mystery to be co-produced by Apple Studios and A24, which Apple Original Films landed in a highly competitive situation.
Released in 2023, the graphic novel is a comedy centered on a couple struggling through their marriage while feeling like something is not quite right in their reality. Producers on the film will include Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi for Excellent Cadaver, Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, and Emily Hildner for Square Peg, and A24. Rainey will serve as executive producer.
Coming off of a Golden Globe nomination for her role in Sony’s acclaimed sex comedy No Hard Feelings, Lawrence prior to that starred opposite Brian Tyree Henry in the veteran drama Causeway, also from Apple and A24. The actress has strengthened ties with Apple in recent years, also recently seeing the studio acquire the documentary Bread & Roses, capturing the experiences of Afghanistan women’s under the Taliban since they took control of Kabul, for which she served as producer.
Funke is best known for co-creating the dark comedy On Becoming a God in Central Florida, starring Kirsten Dunst, which premiered on Showtime in 2019.
Recently securing a new investment from Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, valuing the company at $3.5B, A24 is coming off the release of Ti West’s MaXXXine and recently acquired Mice, a horror package that has David Bruckner set to direct from a script by Todd Spence and Zak Whitem a spec marking the duo’s first sale to a major studio.
Lawrence and her Excellent Cadaver are repped by LBI Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Funke by CAA, Mosaic, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols; and Rainey by Gersh, which handled the deal for the book.
