Jennifer Lopez will play an assassin who gets back in the game to protect the child she gave up years ago in The Mother. The Netflix movie comes from director Niki Caro, who helmed the live-action Mulan remake, and writer Misha Green, who created Lovecraft Country and who was recently announced as the writer and director of the Tomb Raider sequel. This is the second Netflix project Lopez is involved with – she’s also set to produce and star in the Netflix thriller The Cipher.

Deadline broke the news: Jennifer Lopez will star in The Mother, a film about a “deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men.” Deadline adds that the film is being compared to The Professional, AKA Leon, the 1994 film starring Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, and Gary Oldman.

The script for The Mother was originally written by Lovecraft Country‘s Misha Green, with Straight Outta Compton‘s Andrea Berloff handling re-writes. Niki Caro, who directed Disney’s live-action Mulan remake, is set to helm for Netflix. Lopez is also working with Netflix on The Cipher, a thriller about an FBI agent who is “pulled into a serial killer’s case after he leaves complex codes and riddles online, which are linked to his recent murders.”

Both The Mother and The Cipher sound like the type of mid-budget thriller that used to hit the big screen back in the 1990s, and I’m not complaining. I’m all for streaming services picking up the type of project big studios don’t pump out anymore. Give me variety, that’s all I ask. If Hollywood only wants to produce franchises and superhero stuff, someone, somewhere, has to fill the void. If it’s Netflix, so be it.

Lopez is keeping busy. In addition to The Mother and The Cipher, she’s also attached to star in the rom-com Marry Me with Owen Wilson, The Godmother, based on the true story of Griselda “La Madrina” Blanco, Colombian drug lord of the Medellín Cartel and a major part of the Miami cocaine drug trade during the 1980s, and the comedy Shotgun Wedding, which was going to team Lopez up with Armie Hammer. Hammer has recently left the project due to several scandals that have cropped up involving his personal life.

Lopez will produce The Mother along with Elaine Goldsmith Thomas for Nuyorican Productions. Other producers include Benny Medina; Roy Lee and Miri Yoon for Vertigo Entertainment; and Misha Green. Catherine Hagedorn is the executive producer, and Courtney Baxter is the associate producer.

The post ‘The Mother’: Jennifer Lopez Will Play an Assassin in Netflix Movie From ‘Mulan’ Director Niki Caro and ‘Lovecraft Country’ Writer Misha Green appeared first on /Film.