First she gets a hit single, now she gets a husband. It’s been a great couple of weeks for Jennifer Lawrence scoring things that start with “h,” as The Hollywood Reporter announces that Edgar Ramirez is in final negotiations to play her husband in Joy, David O. Russell’s next film.
As we reported earlier this year, Russell is out to prove that people will even pay to watch a movie about a Home Shopping Network fixture if you get Jennifer Lawrence to play her. Joy will tell the story of Joy Mangano, inventor of the self-wringing Miracle Mop, whose success allowed the then-single mother of three to become the multimillionaire entrepreneur and forthcoming biopic subject she is today. Ramirez will play Mangano’s “dapper but philandering husband, whom she eventually divorces.” A divorce triggered, perhaps, by Mangano having the foresight to realize that such a breakup would make a killer Oscar showreel scene for the actor who plays her some decades later.
Robert De Niro has also joined the movie, playing Lawrence’s father. Joy will begin shooting in February 2015, just a few short months before audiences will get to evaluate Ramirez’s skills in surfing killer waves as he plays Bodhi in the remake of Point Break. Given a choice between taking over Patrick Swayze’s most iconic role and being Jennifer Lawrence’s philandering husband, we’d be hard-pressed to say which one is more likely to make dudes predisposed to dislike you.