Deadline is reporting that Jessica has teamed with Sully writer Todd Komarnicki and TV producer Christina Wayne (Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here) for Mercury 13 (working title), an event series project set at ITV Studios America, where Wayne’s Assembly Entertainment has a pod deal.

The original report was updated, but Deadline initially reported that Jessica would possibly star in the series as well but this seems to be removed. Yahoo! is still reporting it.

Jessica will executive produce ia her production company Freckle Films. Komarnicki, who will write the project, executive produces via Guy Walks Into A Bar, alongside Assembly Entertainment’s Wayne.

In 1961, while the world was making heroes of the Mercury 7 astronauts, leading scientist William Randolph Lovelace II, who had helped develop the tests for NASA’s male astronauts, embarked on a secret experiment… to see if sending women to space was an equally viable option. He sought out 13 of the most daring and determined female pilots in the country, who were willing to risk it all to be part of the space race, and achieve their dream of becoming astronauts. They became known as the Mercury 13.

Thewomen passed the same battery of tests as did the male Mercury 7 astronauts, some even outpacing them. But, without NASA’s cooperation, the tests had to be shut down and, despite the women’s pleas to President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and a Congress hearing on the issue, women were not allowed into the space program, and it would be more than 20 years before an American woman got to space in 1983. Mercury 13 tells the untold true story of how NASA, the U.S. Congress and the president himself conspired to crush these women’s dreams.

February 10, 2017   Lindsey

Jessica is featured on March cover of W Magazine alongside Jennifer Lopez, Donatella Versace, Kate Moss, Taraji P. Henson, in an issue named A Salute to 5 Powerful Women

Photograph by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, and looking gorgeous in an Alexander McQueen dress, they gave Jessica a full profile highlighting her feminist side.

After playing characters who took on the gun lobby, Southern racism, al-Qaeda, and assorted husbands running the gamut from clueless to abusive, Jessica Chastain can *hardly be blamed for wanting a vacation from human nature. She told her agent to look for a film about animals. Along came The Zookeeper’s Wife, out this month, based on the best-selling book by Diane Ackerman. The story draws on the unpublished diaries of Antonina Zabinski, who, with her husband, Jan, ran a zoo in Warsaw, Poland, and smuggled some 300 Jews to safety during the Nazi occupation. Chastain’s is the title role, and the film revolves around her as she cares for a dwindling menagerie and a growing flock of people. The Jews locked in the ghetto are photographed by those on the outside through the bars of the gate. The film, she says, is about “life in a cage.” So much for that vacation.

Chastain has always loved animals. “You look into their eyes and you can see what’s in their heart,” she says, echoing her character’s words to a young girl who has just been raped by German soldiers. Antonina strokes a rabbit as she talks, recounting her own childhood as a fugitive after the wartime murder of her father in her native Russia. “Animals helped her to heal,” Chastain says. “I think Antonina could connect better to animals than she could to people. And I believe animals can teach you how to handle people. I never go into their space unless they are ready to receive me.”

It was Chastain who suggested that Johan Heldenbergh, the Belgian actor, writer, and director, play Jan. A lover of foreign films, she had been impressed by his performance in The Broken Circle Breakdown, a Belgian movie he cowrote, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2014. Niki Caro, Zookeeper’s director, agreed that Heldenbergh would be perfect for the role. But then the studio executives balked, on the grounds that he’d never acted in English. “So I went on YouTube,” Chastain says. “And I’m an obsessive person.” She typed in his name and kept searching until she came across a video of a toast he had given in a bar in Los Angeles. “And I’m like, ‘He can speak English. Here you go.’?”

Virile and complex, Heldenbergh holds his own against Chastain, who, with her columnar neck and fine bones, is at her most radiant. The heat between them anchors the film in their life as a couple. They are heroic, though not by the usual Hollywood standards, which, Chastain notes, have more to do with aggression; their courage, she says, takes the form of compassion.

Antonina is the latest in a succession of strong women Chastain has played. In some cases, their beauty has shaped their personalities. Oddly enough, that doesn’t seem to be true of Chastain herself. She’s a bombshell on the red carpet, in a film, or whenever the situation calls for it, but not on her own time. “I don’t walk around like this,” she says, dressed in glamorous makeup, a black blouse and pants, and heels for a media Q&A following our conversation. “In our society, women are valued for their sexual attraction. I’d like to get away from the sex symbol idea of what beauty is. Actually, that’s probably the farthest thing from beauty, because it’s makeup and hair, it’s pouty lips—it’s not real.”

Chastain has a similarly ambivalent relationship to the fame that has come with her success. She obliges the photographers, but you won’t see her diet tips or the details of her private life on a cover at the newsstand. She goes to the gym. She takes the subway. “The reason we like acting is connecting to other people,” she says. “Why would I ever put myself in a situation where I couldn’t talk to those people anymore?” The Zookeeper’s Wife comes on the heels of Miss Sloane, in which Chastain was a Washington lobbyist scheming to secure passage of a Senate bill on gun control. Miss Sloane, not Ms. “It’s sexist; it’s patronizing,” Chastain says. And that’s the point. “No woman would call her Miss Sloane.” The men she deals with professionally find her hard shell and relentless drive repugnant. And yet, Chastain continues, “if you put a male actor in a role in which he can’t hold down a relationship because he’s so focused on his job, he goes with prostitutes, he’s fighting for the good of all against the good of the few. Okay, we’ve seen those characters before. The renegade, the loner—that’s the male lead, right? But for some reason, women aren’t supposed to be that. We’re not supposed to be ambitious, we’re not supposed to be ‘overprepared,’?” she says, citing the charges leveled at Hillary Clinton during one of last year’s presidential debates.

Miss Sloane brings to mind another tough trailblazer *Chastain took on: Maya, the CIA agent who tracks down Osama bin Laden, in Zero Dark Thirty. Some critics found Maya lacking, because she didn’t have a boyfriend, as if the woman who had taken it upon herself to solve the case that had stumped all the intelligence experts needed to be made more likable by being in love. Chastain is making fine films, but she’s also intent on making a difference. “I love that Miss Sloane mentors women,” she says. “That’s the experience I’ve had—with women who take care of one another.”

The women she has brought to life still cross her mind. “Sometimes I think: I wonder what Celia Foote’s doing now. At the end of the movie, when you say goodbye to the character, you hope she’s in a better place than she was at the beginning, that she’s learned something and is going to be able to heal herself. It’s like a kid you’re sending out into the world,” she says, giving a little shove with her hands: “Good luck!” She would like to convene all those past selves she’s played for a reunion. Eleanor Rigby, who lost a son. Rachel Singer, the Mossad agent who hunts a Nazi war criminal. Jolene, the foster child who hitchhikes her way to a new life. Celia, Antonina, Maya, Miss Sloane, and now Antonina. They would all be there, trading stories and contact information, offering one another advice and a ride home.

February 4, 2017   Luciana

Jessica is part of a new (and very important) project, named I Am Jane Doe. She’s narrator of this documentary, which chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the iconic Village Voice.

According to the official site,

The Jane Doe plaintiffs featured in the film include middle school girls from Boston, a 15-year-old violinist from Seattle, and a precocious 13-year-old girl from St. Louis. The documentary follows the journey of these young girls and their mothers in real time as they run headlong into a collision course not only with Backpage but with judges, special interest groups, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, an internet freedom law that provides a safe haven for website publishers to advertise underage girls for sex.

The film also features the attorneys involved in the various lawsuits, including a criminal defense lawyer working out of a strip mall in Washington State and a senior partner in one of the oldest white-shoe law firms in the country (Ropes & Gray) from Massachusetts. The film includes interviews with Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota), as well as former editors and writers from the Village Voice, ex-CIA analysts, FBI agents, and others involved with these cases.

The film will premiere next February 10th, and you can find here the selected theaters that will be screening it. 50% of all profits from this project will be donated back to non-profit organizations which serve Jane Doe children.

Watch the trailer:

January 12, 2017   Luciana

Jessica attended last night the annual Golden Globe Awards. She was nominated as Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her work on Miss Sloane, which was won by Isabelle Huppert. She also presented alongside Eddie Redmayne the Best Film Comedy/Musical award.

Chastain brought boyfriend Gian Luca as her date, and was beautiful in a blue Prada gown. The first batch of pictures can now be found in our gallery.

January 9, 2017   Luciana

This is our first update of 2017. 2016 has been a great year to look back on, be sure to check out our review in case you missed it, and we also expect 2017 is going to be another great year. 3 movies – “The Zookeeper’s Wife”, “Woman Walks Ahead”, “Molly’s Game” – are expected to be released this year while Jessica is also attached to “The Division” and “Painkiller Jane”. We will try to give an overview and summary of what we can expect of Jessica’s career in 2017.

The Zookeeper’s Wife (Focus Features)

Director: Niki Caro | Writers: Angela Workman, Diane Ackerman (book) | Cast: Daniel Brühl, Johan Heldenbergh
Log line: The real-life story of one working wife and mother who became a hero to hundreds during World War II.
Current status: Completed.
Release: March 31, 2017 (US) | May 5, 2017 (UK)
News tidbit: Jessica wrote an essay while filming the movie about how it was “transformative” to work with “way more” women than she’s ever collaborated with before on a film production.
External Links: Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Official plot: The real-life story of one working wife and mother who became a hero to hundreds during World War II. In 1939 Poland, Antonina Zabinski (Jessica Chastain) and her husband, Dr. Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh), have the Warsaw Zoo flourishing under his stewardship and her care. When their country is invaded by the Nazis, Jan and Antonina are stunned – and forced to report to the Reich’s newly appointed chief zoologist, Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl). To fight back on their own terms, Antonina and Jan covertly begin working with the Resistance – and put into action plans to save lives out of what has become the Warsaw Ghetto, with Antonina putting herself and even her children at great risk.

Woman Walks Ahead (CAA for representation)

Director: Susanna White | Writers: Steven Knight | Cast: Sam Rockwell, Ciarán Hinds, David Midthunder, Michael Greyeyes.
Log line: Woman Walks Ahead is the story of Catherine Weldon, a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn, who travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull, and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples’ struggle over the rights to their land.
Current status: Post-Production
Release: TBA 2017
News tidbit: Jessica shared an adorable on-set photo on her official instagram account alongside co-star Sam Rockwell.

The Native American drama stars Chastain as Caroline Weldon, an artist who moves from Brooklyn to the Standing Rock Reservation in the Dakotas to advise Sioux chieftain Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes) as he fights to keep the land for his people. She wrote letters to the federal government on behalf of Sitting Bull and eventually lived on the land with her teenage son for several years, even though she was vilified by the press, which called her “Sitting Bull’s white squaw.”

Molly’s Game (STX Entertainment )

Director: Aaron Sorkin | Writers: Aaron Sorkin, Molly Bloom (memoir) | Cast: Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Chris O’Dowd, Graham Greene
Log line: Molly Bloom, a young skier and former Olympic hopeful becomes a successful entrepreneur (and a target of an FBI investigation) when she establishes a high-stakes, international poker game.
Current status: Filming.
Release: TBA (US) | January 19, 2018 (UK)
News tidbit: Jessica has shared various on-set photos of herself on her official instagram, including an adorable group shot in which she announced the movie would go on a holiday break before Christmas.

Jessica stars as Molly Bloom. Stung after failing to make the Olympic team, Bloom decided to take a year off before law school and get a job as a waitress in Los Angeles. Through a bizarre set of circumstances as well as untapped entrepreneurial skills, she ended up making millions by running, for eight years, the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in the world. Her life came crashing down when 17 FBI agents armed with automatic weapons rang her doorbell.

The Division

While making this update we realized we never made a post at our main site with the news that Jessica joined “The Division”. The Wrap reported late last summer that Jessica joined Jake Gyllenhaal in Tom Clancy Video Game Adaptation “The Division”. The news was confirmed by the the company.

Jake Gyllenhaal is attached to produce and star in Ubisoft’s adaptation of its own hit game “Tom Clancy‘s The Division.” Released on March 8 this year, the game was an instant success, with the highest number of first-day sales on record for the gaming company.

“The Division” takes place in the aftermath of a small pox pandemic in dystopian New York. Players attempt to rebuild, investigate and fight crime in the city.

“We are excited to collaborate with Jessica and Jake, two of Hollywood’s most talented actors and perfect creative collaborators to help bring Tom Clancy‘s The Division to the big screen,” said Gerard Guillemot, Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO, in a statement.

“Attaching Jake and Jessica is part of our development philosophy of working closely with top talent from the earliest stages to collaborate on a high quality film,” added Matt Phelps, Vice President, Ubisoft Motion Pictures.

2018 & beyond

Jessica currently has two movies which are expected to be released in 2018: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan and The Division. The former is already in post-production, while it was reported last year – as we mentioned above – that Jessica joined Jake Gyllenhaal in the adaptation of “The Division”. Late last year it was also announced that Jessica will play Jane Vasko in the future adaptation of Painkiller Jane.

Jessica launched her own production company Freckle Films last year. The company will produce The Division and Painkiller Jane. Furthermore, Freckle Films also optioned two books: The Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister and Camille Pagan’s novel, Life and Other Near-Death Experiences.

January 3, 2017   Lindsey

This is our last update of 2016, and first I want to wish all our visitors a very happy New Year! Thanks for another year, for your visit, your comments, your friendship.

So to close another chapter, we’ll give you a summary on Jessica’s career on this year of 2016.

The year started with Jessica still doing promotional appearances for The Martian. The last official promotional appearance was a New York screening alongside Matt Damon and Ridley Scott. The film was a huge success of critics and public. It grossed up $630 million wordlwide, scoring 92% of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, 80% on Metacritic and 8/10 on IMDB. Right on the first week of January, Jessica attended the National Board of Review Awards, in which The Martian was named one of the Top 10 Films of the Year. The film also received an Academy Award nomination, and won a Golden Globes – in which Jessica didn’t attend the ceremony but was in the clip released by Fox to celebrate the award. The Martian received over 180 nominations in several awards, and won over 30.

Some new projects was announced for Jessica this year. In February, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Jessica would star in Woman Walks Ahead, that was wrapped recently and a first look was released later in November. In November, also, she was announced for the graphic novel adaptation “Painkiller Jane”. She also launched her production company, Frackle Films, and as reported by Variety, alongside Queen Latifah, Juliette Binoche and Catherine Hardwicke, have joined the production company We Do It Together. She was also offered the lead in Molly’s Game, directed by Aaron Sorkin and currently being filmed in Toronto.

In November, as well, we had the first look on two upcoming films to be released next year. Some promotional images, followed by the first trailer for ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ – based on Diane Ackerman’s 2007 book chronicling Anonina and Jan Zabinski’s real-life efforts to save Jews in Poland during World War II. Also some Montreal based media started to show some behind-the-scenes interviews of The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, directed by Xavier Dolan.

Jessica spent February, March and April promoting The Huntsman: Winter’s War. alongside Chris Hemsworth, Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron. Earlier in February a new trailer was released, followed by features on Total Film and Empire magazine. Then, Today Show aired an on-set interview with the cast.

April was only dedicated to The Huntsman: Winter’s War promotion. The film was first released in Europe around April 3, following releases worldwide. It received really poor reviews (with 17% only on Rotten Tomatoes), and grossed around $164 million worldwide. Not for lack of promotion, tho. Jessica attended premieres in Singapore, Beijing, a joint appearance with the cast at the MTV Movie Awards, interviews on talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel, James Corden and Today Show, and also the premiere in Los Angeles.

The promotion tour for Miss Sloane, the other film released this year, started in November, after the first trailer being released in September. Jessica attended several talk shows, and was invited by the Chinese Theater for a hand/footprint ceremony. She attended several screenings, lots of it not being properly covered by the media – which we assumed it was due the film subject being pro-gun control. The film was released in November 25, and Jessica is receiving positive reviews for her performance. The film currently has a 69% positive reviews in Rotten Tomatoes, but isn’t doing good on theaters. By this time, it grossed around $3 million domestic. It didn’t stop Jessica to receive a Golden Globes nomination for her performance.

Jessica had, as usual, a busy year. Alongside the promotional tour for The Huntsman, Miss Sloane and The Martian, she presented at the Independent Spirit Awards in February. She also attended the Met Gala in May, wearing a gorgeous Prada gown. In Cannes, she attended the opening gala, and the Money Monster premiere. In June, she attended the CFDA award and on her Instagram she told a nice story about Sebastian Stan, her The Martian co-star, saving the night after she needing an Uber. In Paris, for the Fashion Week, she attended events for Chanel, Prada, Michael Kors and Piaget. Her last event of the year was a participation on Inside the Actor’s Studio.

Appearances & Events > 2016

Jessica also graced several magazines this year. She was cover of Flaunt, Porter, Angeleno, Modern Weekly, Elle France, L’Officiel, C Magazine, The Edit and Vogue Ukraine, also featured on several movie related magazines.

Magazines & Scans > Magazines in 2016

Photoshoots & Portraits > Photoshoots from 2016

In November, was released the first feature for 2017, the iconic Pirelli calendar which Jessica is part of. Shot by Peter Lindberg and titled Emotional, features Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlotte Rampling, Léa Seydoux, Uma Thurman, Alicia Vikander, Kate Winslet, Robin Wright, Zhang Ziyi, and Moscow State University professor Anastacia Ignatova.

In October also was revealed that Jessica was the face of the new Prada Resort 2017 Campaign.

Favourites of 2016

Here is our favourites of this year. Let us know if you agree with it or not.

Favourite look
Jessica had – as usual – a great year on red carpet. She’s styled by Elizabeth Stewart, and her beauty team is also completed by Hairstylist Renato Campora and make-up artists Robin Fredriksz and Jeanine Lobell.
Since a redhead in yellow is a hard to beat, my favourite red carpet look was the Cannes Opening Gala, in which Jessica wore a sunny yellow Armani Prive number.

Favourite Photoshoot
We had a year of great photoshoots, due all the magazines Jessica was featured on, also the portraits done for interviews. But it was one of the last ones that was chosen as my favourite, The Edit, photographed by Chris Colls.

Best News
For me, it was the Painkiller Jane casting news. After months of fan casting Jessica as Captain Marvel and other bad-ass characters, it was amazing to see her being cast as a comic-book heroine, a badass soldier to kick asses and calling names.

Best Interview(s)
We had plenty of interviews this year, one way better than other. You can find some in our video archive, under the tags of The Huntsman and Miss Sloane.
I’ll highlight the interview she did to Ellen, which is always a delight to watch.

Best Quote
Jessica is a fierce feminist advocate, and every opportunity she has to talk about it, she gladly take it. Back in April she did an interview to The Guardian and started talking about the lawsuit filled by Kesha and the myth that women can’t support each other.

“Now, it’s like…we are so tired of this. Because that was how they did it back then. So you think now, it’s a really brave thing to come forward and say something is not OK. And to see the support of other famous women coming out. How great is it, when there’s no fear? This myth that women don’t get along well – who does that serve? It doesn’t serve women. (…) Why would it benefit anyone to deny accolades for others? It’s this long fairytale that women don’t get along. But we’re changing that.”
– Jessica Chastain – The Guardian

That’s it! We’ll try to make this an annual series, and I want to give a thanks/shout-out to my friends Frederik from Simply Streep, Lindsey from Rachel McAdams Online and Jess from Glamour Reese for the inspiration on the ‘Year in Review’ special.

To finish, I wish Jessica the best in this coming year. This is extended to our visitors. Thanks for supporting our website!

December 28, 2016   Luciana