2929 and Studiocanal Productions issued a press release today which included the above first look picture of The Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Serena from director Susanne Bier whose fantastic film In a Better World won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Feature last year.
Upon first glance, I hardly recognized Lawrence with her wavy gold locks as she plays wife to Cooper’s character in the film which is based on Ron Rash‘s acclaimed novel of the same name.
The story follows newlyweds George (Cooper) and Serena Pemberton (Lawrence) who travel from Boston to the mountains of North Carolina where they begin to build a timber empire in 1929. Serena soon shows herself to be the equal of any man: overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving a man’s life in the wilderness. Together, this king and queen rule their dominion, killing or vanquishing all who stand in the way of their ambitions. But when Serena learns that she can never bear a child, she sets out to murder the woman who bore George a son before his marriage. And when she starts to suspect that George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons’ intense, passionate marriage begins to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.
The film does not yet have a distributor as production is only now getting underway in Prague with a cast that also includes Rhys Ifans who will be seen this summer playing the villain in The Amazing Spider-Man and Toby Jones who was also a part of The Hunger Games cast.
Depending on how long it takes for Bier to finish the film, there is a possibility it could be ready for the fall festival circuit, but a more likely expectation is we’ll see it at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
If you would like a slightly larger look at the pic you can click here.
