David Farnor | On 23, Mar 2017

Brie Larson will star in a Amazon’s new original film about the USA’s first female presidential candidate.

The movie, which Larson will also produce, will see the Room actress portray Victoria Woodhull, who made history when she campaigned to be President of the United States in 1872. A suffragist and women’s liberator, she earned the nomination for the job several decades before women even had the right to vote in the country.

Deadline broke the news of the project, describing Woodhull (whose name will also be the title of the movie) as “a women’s liberator, non-conformist, conniver, narcissist, politician, and rebel”. Raised by her con-artist father, she and her sisters were taught to channel spirits to cheat superstitious crowds, a skill that formed the foundation for her ambitious climb from rags to riches and back again.

Amazon Studios acquired the project in a pitch package deal, with Ben Kopit (writer of Warner Bros’ upcoming film Libertine) penning the script. Alongside Larson will be Whalerock Industries’ Lloyd Braun and Andrew Mittman as producers. Anne Woodward is set to exec produce.

The project is the latest in a string of big roles for Larson, who made Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire after her Oscar win for Room, and can currently be seen in blockbuster Kong: Skull Island. She will soon star in Captain Marvel and Lionsgate’s The Glass Castle. Victoria Woodhull also marks Larson’s second producing credit, following 2017’s Unicorn Shore.

It’s a similarly big deal for Amazon, which is increasingly stepping up its original content arm, after winning two Oscars for Manchester by the Sea, which it acquired at Sundance last year.

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