Jennifer Lawrence is set to make her directorial debut with Project Delirium
Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence may be one of Hollywood’s top actresses, with dramatic ability seen in films like this winter’s Joy as well as action chops showcased in franchise roles for The Hunger Games and X-Men. Apparently that’s not enough for Lawrence, however, who has told Entertainment Weekly about her intentions to join the ranks of Ben Affleck, Angelina Jolie and other actors who also call the shots on set, which she will do for a dark comedy based on actual events titled Project Delirium.
“I’d also like to direct a comedy,” she says. “I have wanted to direct as long as I’ve wanted to act. I just don’t talk about it because I’d rather just do it. I’ve signed on to direct something called ‘Project Delirium’ — it’s based on this article about mental warfare in the ’60s, like an acid experiment gone terribly wrong. It’s funny, I’ve wanted to direct since I was 16 and always thought I should start making steps towards that. If I had tried to do it earlier, I wouldn’t have been ready. Now I actually feel ready.”
The 2012 New Yorker article she’s referring to, titled Operation Delirium by Raffi Khatchadourian, focuses on the chemical warfare experiments conducted by Colonel James S. Ketchum at the Edgewood military facility in Maryland from 1960 to 1969 in which he tested over 5000 volunteer U.S. soldiers with dangerous “incapacitating agents” including LSD, BZ and marijuana. The goal was to try to figure out a means to neutralize an enemy without killing them, although most of the Edgewood test subjects were not checked in on in the ensuing years for lasting mental damage caused by the experiments.
Lawrence is currently filming the sci-fi romance Passengers with Chris Pratt, and will reprise her role as Mystique in next summer’s X-Men: Apocalypse. She can be seen right now in theaters in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.
If you’re interested in digging deeper into the conspiracy and mind control weirdness surrounding Edgewood from a comedic perspective, The Last Podcast on the Left did a hilarious and disturbing two-parter on the subject which you can stream below.
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